ROBERT  WATCHORN 


American 

EDITED   BY 

RALPH   CURTJS    RINGWALT 


American 


IMMIGRATION 


AND   ITS  EFFECTS   UPON 
THE    UNITED   STATES 


BY 
PRESCOTT  F.  HALL,  A.B.,  LL.B. 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

1906 


Copyright,  1906, 

BY 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


Published  February,  1906 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

Mr.  Hall's  Immigration  is  the  first  of  a  series  which 
the  publishers  plan  gradually  to  augment  until  it  covers 
the  field  of  controverted  topics  in  American  political, 
economic  and  social  affairs,  in  which  there  is  any  wide- 
spread public  interest.  Each  of  the  volumes  will  be  de- 
voted to  a  single  and  to  a  definite  question;  and  all,  it 
is  hoped,  will  possess  certain  desirable  characteristics  in 
common.  Thus,  a  history  will  be  given  of  each  question 
in  its  political  and  legislative  aspects;  all  the  facts  that 
are  available  and  pertinent  in  respect  to  it ;  and  a  careful 
and  impartial  discussion  of  the  policies  that  have  been 
advocated  for  the  future.  But  authors  will,  of  course, 
be  free  to  adopt  any  method  of  treatment  that  they  please, 
and  to  uphold  or  to  condemn  as  they  may  see  fit. 

So  far  as  possible,  the  editor  wishes  to  make  the  series 
one  of  genuine  weight  and  consequence, — not  only  as 
books  and  literature,  but  as  a  contribution  to  national  life 
and  welfare.  The  problems  with  which  the  Series  will 
deal  are  all  important;  those  on  the  right  solution  of 
which  much  of  the  nation's  greatness  and  prosperity,  and 
even  its  existence,  may  well  be  said  to  depend.  But  such 
a  solution,  it  is  believed,  can  only  be  achieved  in  one  way, 
— by  thorough  understanding,  and  by  intelligent,  thought- 
ful discussion.  And  it  is  to  such  understanding  and  dis- 
cussion that  the  Series  will  seek,  in  as  weighty  a  measure 
as  possible,  to  contribute. 

R.  C.  R. 

NEW  YORK  CITY 
December,  1905 

v 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 


THE  great  interest  now  shown  by  the  American  people 
in  the  immigration  question,  and  the  very  general 
lack  of  information  as  to  the  conditions  and  effects  of 
immigration,  seem  to  call  for  a  new  handbook  on  the  sub- 
ject. Since  the  publication  of  the  late  Professor  Mayo- 
Smith's  book,  in  1890,  important  changes  have  taken 
place  in  immigration  itself;  and  many  valuable  reports 
and  articles  have  been  published,  the  most  comprehensive 
of  which  is,  perhaps,  the  Report  of  the  Industrial  Com- 
mission made  in  1902. 

The  extent  and  importance  of  these  changes  have 
naturally  resulted  in  considerable  attention  being  given, 
in  the  present  volume,  to  the  most  recent  period,  and  less 
to  the  historical  survey  of  immigration  in  the  earlier 
part  of  the  country's  existence;  for,  however  interesting 
the  history  of  the  matter  may  be,  the  problems  which 
confront  the  American  people  to-day,  with  regard  to 
immigration,  are  of  comparatively  recent  origin. 

The  limits  of  the  present  volume  forbid  any  elaborate 
treatment  of  the  various  races  of  our  immigrants,  either 
statistical  or  descriptive.  For  the  benefit  of  those  who 
wish  to  study  this  phase  of  the  subject  further,  the 
author  has  made  a  free  use  of  footnotes,  and  has  ap- 
pended a  list  of  the  more  important  authorities. 

The  plan  of  the  book  is  to  present  first  the  facts  in  re- 
gard to  immigration — its  history,  causes  and  conditions. 
In  Part  II.  the  effects  of  immigration  are  discussed.  In 

vii 


viii  Preface 

Part  III.  the  history  of  past  legislation  upon  the  subject 
is  given,  and  various  proposed  remedies  for  the  evils 
of  immigration  are  described.  Part  IV.  deals  with 
Chinese  immigration.  Copies  of  the  federal  immigration 
acts  now  in  force  are  appended. 

The  author  desires  to  acknowledge  his  obligations  to 
the  late  Professor  Mayo-Smith,  not  only  for  many  facts 
in  his  book  but  for  suggesting  the  preparation  of  this 
volume.  He  wishes  also  to  express  his  indebtedness  to 
the  various  officials  of  the  Immigration  Service  during 
the  past  ten  years  for  their  unfailing  courtesy  in 
answering  inquiries  and  permitting  examination  of  in- 
spection methods;  and  to  Mr.  R.  DeC.  Ward,  for  many 
valuable  suggestions. 

The  immigration  question  in  this  country  has  never 
in  the  past  had  the  attention  to  which  its  importance 
entitles  it.  It  has  sometimes  been  the  scapegoat  of  re- 
ligious and  racial  prejudices,  and  always,  in  recent  years, 
an  annual  sacrifice  to  the  gods  of  transportation.  The 
causes  of  this  indifference  are  not  far  to  seek.  In  the 
early  days,  the  people  of  this  country  were  busy  with 
other  matters:  the  immigration  was  small  and  not  espe- 
cially objectionable  in  quality.  Later,  the  doctrines  of 
the  laisses  faire  school,  and  the  narrow  and  prejudiced 
theories  of  the  Know-Nothing  movement  helped  to  con- 
tinue the  status  of  free  immigration.  More  recently  a 
superficial  interpretation  of  the  doctrine  of  the  "  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest "  has  led  the  public  to  adopt  an  easy- 
going optimism  with  regard  to  racial  questions,  forget- 
ting that  this  doctrine  really  means  that  those  survive 
who  are  fittest  for  survival  only,  and  not  necessarily 
fittest  for  any  other  purpose. 

At  the  present  time,  the  enormous  volume  of  immi- 
gration has  attracted  the  attention  of  the  public,  but  its 


Preface 


IX 


conditions  and  effects  are  familiar  to  few.  If  this  volume 
contributes  in  any  degree  to  a  further  knowledge  of  the 
subject  its  purpose  will  have  been  accomplished. 

PRESCOTT  F.  HALL 
60  STATE  STREET,  BOSTON 
December,  1905 


CONTENTS 


PART   I 
IMMIGRATION  AND  EMIGRATION 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    HISTORY  OF  IMMIGRATION  AND  EMIGRATION 

A.  Immigration  prior  to  1820 3 

B.  Immigration  from  1820  to  1869      ....  6 

C.  Immigration  from  1870  to  1905      ....  7 

D.  Summary 8 

E.  Emigration H 

II.    THE  CAUSES  OF  IMMIGRATION 

A.  In  general 14 

B.  Prosperity  of  the  country 17 

C.  Religious  persecution  and  political  oppression  20 

D.  Facility   of   transit 22 

E.  Solicitation  by  steamship  agents     ....  25 

F.  Assisted    immigration 27 

G.  Other  causes 33 

III.  RACIAL  CONDITIONS  OF  IMMIGRATION 

A.  History  of  changes 36 

B.  Characteristics  of  the  various  races      ...  41 

IV.  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  OF  IMMIGRATION 

A.  Money  value  of  the  immigrant      ....  67 

B.  Occupations 74 

C.  Birds  of  passage 77 

V.     SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  OF  IMMIGRATION 

A.  Illiteracy 80 

B.  Crime,  insanity  and  disease 83 

C.  Distribution 88 

xi 


xii  Contents 


PART  II 
THE  EFFECTS   OF  IMMIGRATION 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

VI.    RACIAL  EFFECTS 

A.  Importance  of  race  stock 98 

B.  Effect  of  changes  in  the  nationality  of  immi- 

grants    102 

VII.    ECONOMIC  EFFECTS 

A.  Demand   for   labor 121 

B.  Effect  on  wages  and  standard  of  living    .     .  123 

C.  Padrone  system 131 

D.  Sweating  system    ...........  133 

E.  Unemployment       ............  135 

VIII.    SOCIAL  EFFECTS 

A.  Illiteracy     «.,,..«•«„„,     .     .  139 

B.  Crime      .     .....».•.».    A     ...  146 

C.  Insanity  and  disease       .........  156 

D.  Pauperism 160 

E.  Burden  of  dependents  and  delinquents    .     .  166 

F.  Congestion  in  cities 169 

G.  Assimilation 172 

IX.     POLITICAL  EFFECTS 

A.  Political   tendencies     .......     .  183 

B.  Naturalization         ............  189 


PART  III 
IMMIGRATION    LEGISLATION 

X.    HISTORY  OF  IMMIGRATION  LEGISLATION 

A.  Legislation   favoring   immigrants    ...     .201 

B.  State    restrictive    legislation 204 

C.  Federal  restrictive  legislation 206 

D.  Inspection  and  registration  of  immigrants     .     231 


Contents  xiii 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XL     EFFECT  OF  THE  PRESENT  LAWS  AND  THE  NEED  OF 
FURTHER  RESTRICTION 

A.  Numbers  debarred  and  deported     ....  239 

B.  Diseased   immigrants        241 

C.  Solicitation  by  transportation  companies  .     .  245 

D.  Contract  labor  laws 248 

E.  Immigration  through  Canada  and  Mexico    .  251 

XII.     PROPOSED  LEGISLATION 

A.  Head-tax  and  money  test 256 

B.  Physical   test 258 

C.  Illiteracy  test 262 

D.  Consular  inspection 280 

E.  Other  methods 288 

F.  Administrative    amendments 295 

XIII.  OTHER  PROPOSED  REMEDIES  FOR  IMMIGRATION  EVILS 

A.  Distribution    of   immigrants 299 

B.  Protective  and  assimilating  movements    .     .     306 

XIV.  CONSIDERATIONS    WITH    RESPECT    TO    FURTHER   RE- 

STRICTION 

A.  Public  opinion  as  to  restriction    .     „    .     .    309 

B.  Ethical  aspects  of  regulation     .....     320 

PART  IV 

CHINESE   IMMIGRATION 

XV.  HISTORY  OF  CHINESE  IMMIGRATION  AND  OF  THE  EX- 

CLUSION ACTS 327 

APPENDICES 

I.  STATISTICAL   TABLES 339 

II.  RESOLUTIONS  ADOPTED  BY  THE  NATIONAL  IMMIGRA- 
TION CONFERENCE  CALLED  BY  THE  NATIONAL  Cmc 
FEDERATION,  DECEMBER  8,  1905 348 

III.  UNITED  STATES  IMMIGRATION  LAWS 351 

IV.  BIBLIOGRAPHY 369 

INDEX       375 


PART   I 
IMMIGRATION    AND   EMIGRATION 


CHAPTER  I 
HISTORY   OF   IMMIGRATION 

A.       IMMIGRATION   PRIOR   TO    l82O  * 

IN  popular  discussions  of  the  immigration  question  it 
is  often  said  that  all  who  have  come  to  this  continent 
since  its  discovery  should  be  considered  equally  as  im- 
migrants, and  that  only  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  can 
be  properly  called  natives.  In  a  certain  sense  this  is 
of  course  true,  but  in  another  it  is  entirely  misleading; 
for  one  cannot  speak  of  immigration  to  a  country  until 
that  country  has  entered  upon  a  career  of  national  ex- 
istence. Accordingly  a  distinction  has  been  made,2  and 
with  reason,  between  those  who  took  part  in  building 
the  political  framework  of  the  thirteen  colonies  and  of 
the  Federal  Union,  and  those  who  have  arrived  to  find 
the  United  States  Government  and  its  social  and  political 
institutions  in  working  operation.  The  former  class 
have  been  called  colonists,  the  latter  are  immigrants 
proper.  In  discussing  the  immigration  question,  this 
distinction  is  important;  for  it  does  not  follow  that  be- 
cause, as  against  the  native  Indians,  all  comers  might  be 
considered  as  intruders  and  equally  without  claim  of 
right,  those  who  have  built  up  a  complicated  framework 
of  nationality  have  no  rights  as  against  others  who  seek 

1  Cp.  John  R.  Commons,  "  Colonial  Race  Elements,"  in  Chau- 
tauquan,  vol.  38,  pp.   118-125   (Oct.  1903). 

2  Mayo-Smith,  Emigration  and  Immigration,  p.  35. 

3 


4  Immigration  and  Emigration 

to  enjoy  the  benefits  of  national  life  without  having  con- 
tributed to  its  creation. 

The  number  of  persons  in  the  country  at  the  date  of 
the  Revolutionary  War  is  not  accurately  known.  The 
population  of  New  England  was  produced  out  of  an 
immigration  of  about  20,000  persons  who  arrived  before 
1640,  and  it  overflowed  into  the  other  colonies  with- 
out receiving  any  corresponding  additions  from  them. 
Franklin  stated  in  1751  that  the  population  then  in  the 
colonies,  amounting  to  about  one  million,  had  been  pro- 
duced from  an  original  immigration  of  less  than  8o,ooo.3 
The  first  census  of  the  United  States,  in  1790,  gave  the 
total  population  as  3,929,214;  but,  as  has  been  pointed 
out  by  Professor  F.  B.  Dexter,4  this  number  does  not 
include  Vermont  or  the  territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio 
River,  which,  he  says,  would  make  the  total  over 
4,000,000.  The  first  records  of  immigration  begin  with 
the  year  1820,  and,  although  the  number  of  immigrants 
who  arrived  in  the  United  States  from  the  close  of  the 
Revolutionary  War  to  1820  is  not  certain,  it  is  esti- 
mated by  good  authorities  at  25o,ooo.5 

It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  the  number  of  immigrants 
from  the  various  countries  in  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  number  from  Great  Britain  in- 
creased from  2081  in  1815,  to  34,787  in  1819,  after 
which  it  diminished  to  14,805  in  i824.e  In  the  year 
1820,  out  of  a  total  immigration  of  8385,  the  United 
Kingdom  furnished  6024.  Germany  was  second  with 

3  Franklin's  Works  (Spark's  Ed.),  vol.  2,  p.  319.     Cp.  Wash- 
ington's Works,  vol.  12,  p.  323;  Madison's  Works,  vol.  3,  p.  213. 

4  Estimates  of  Population  in  the  American  Colonies,  Worcester 
(1887). 

8  Bureau  of  Statistics,  series  1892-1893,  Quarterly  Report,  No. 
2,  p.  7- 

•Mayo-Smith,  p.  17. 


History  of  Immigration  5 

968;  France  third  with  371 ;  and  Spain  fourth  with  139. 
The  total  immigration  from  the  other  parts  of  North  and 
South  America  was  2^7-7 

The  original  settlers  of  this  country  were,  in  the 
main,  of  Teutonic  and  Keltic  stock.  In  the  thirteen 
original  States  the  pioneers  were  practically  all  British, 
Irish,  Dutch,  and  German,  with  a  few  French,  Portu- 
guese and  Swedes ;  and,  in  this  connection,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  French  peo- 
ple is  Teutonic  in  origin.  The  Germans  were  Protes- 
tants from  the  Palatinate,  and  were  pretty  generally 
scattered,  having  colonized  in  New  York,  western  Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland,  and  Virginia.  The  Swedes  settled 
upon  the  Delaware  River.  The  French  were  Huguenots 
driven  from  home  by  Louis  XIV. ;  and,  though  not 
numerous,  were  a  valuable  addition  to  the  colonies.  The 
Irish  were  descendants  of  Cromwell's  army,  and  came 
from  the  north  of  Ireland.  All  the  settlers  had  been  sub- 
jects of  nations  which  entertained  a  high  degree  of  civili- 
zation, and  were  at  that  time  the  colonizing  and  com- 
mercial nations  of  the  world.  At  a  later  period,  the  an- 
nexation of  Florida  and  Louisiana  brought  in  elements 
of  Mediterranean  races,  so  called ;  but,  owing  to  various 
considerations  into  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter 
here,  the  civilization  and  customs  of  the  British  over- 
spread these  regions,  as  well  as  those  colonized  originally 
by  the  Dutch  and  French,  and  produced  a  substantial 
uniformity  in  institutions,  habits  and  traditions  through- 
out the  land. 

This  process  of  solidification  and  assimilation  of  the 
different  colonies  under  British  influence  reached  its  con- 
summation with  the  establishing  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. After  the  birth  of  the  United  States  as  a  separate 

"  Bureau  of  Statistics,  Op.  cit.,  pp.  32-39. 


6  Immigration  -and  Emigration 

nation,  colonization  in  the  earlier  sense  ceased  entirely. 
European  nations  could  no  longer  send  out  their  own 
citizens  and  form  communities  directly  dependent  upon 
themselves  and  subject  to  their  own  jurisdiction.  The 
immigration  of  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries, 
therefore,  differs  widely  in  character  from  the  coloniza- 
tion of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteen  centuries. 


B.       IMMIGRATION    FROM    l82O   TO    1869 

With  the  year  1820  the  official  history  of  immigra- 
tion to  the  United  States  begins;  for  it  was  then  that 
collectors  of  customs  at  our  ports  were  first  obliged  to 
record  the  arrival  of  passengers  by  sea  from  foreign 
countries.  The  record  included  numbers,  ages,  sexes, 
and  occupations.  Before  1856  no  distinction  at  all  was 
made  between  travellers  intending  to  return  and  immi- 
grants intending  to  remain. 

Although  still  comparatively  small,  immigration  in- 
creased from  8385  in  1820  to  22,633  in  I^3i.  The  first 
marked  rise  took  place  in  1827  and  1828,  following  the 
commercial  depression  in  England  in  those  and  in  the 
previous  year.  From  1831,  with  the  exception  of  the 
period  1843-1844,  numbers  continued  steadily  to  advance 
until  they  reached  totals  of  104,565  in  1842,  and  310,004 
in  1850.  The  most  striking  annual  increases  were  from 
114,371  in  1845  to  154416,  in  1846,  and  234,968  in  1847. 
These  sudden  movements  of  population  were  chiefly  due 
to  hard  times  in  Europe,  and  especially  in  Ireland,  a 
cause  which,  with  the  Revolution  of  1848  in  Germany, 
continued  to  operate  until  1854,  when  a  total  of  427,853 
was  reached — a  figure  not  again  attained  until  nearly 
twenty  years  later.  With  the  year  1854  the  tide  began 
to  beat  less  fiercely ;  immigration  decreased  steadily  until, 


History  of  Immigration  7 

during  the  first  two  years  of  the  Civil  War,  it  was  below 
100,000.  But  in  1863,  a  gradual  increase  once  more  set 
in  and  in  1869,  352,768  persons  landed.  During  the  whole 
of  this  period  the  only  immigration  of  importance  came 
from  Europe  and  from  other  parts  of  America.  Immi- 
gration from  Asia,  which  began  in  1853,  consisted  in 
the  largest  year,  1854,  of  13,100  persons. 

In  1869  the  ethnic  composition  of  immigration  com- 
menced in  a  marked  way  to  change,  and  considerations 
which  apply  to  the  earlier  years  do  not  necessarily  hold 
for  those  from  1870  to  the  present  time.  For  this  reason 
the  period  is  made  to  end  with  1869. 


C.      IMMIGRATION   FROM    1870  TO    1905 

In  the  period  from  1870  to  1905,  immigration  in- 
creased more  than  two  fold.  In  1870  the  total  immigra- 
tion was  387,203 ;  in  1903  it  had  reached  the  enormous 
number  of  857,046,  and,  in  1905,  the  still  more  signifi- 
cant figure  of  1,026,499.  Directly  after  1870  a  time  of 
industrial  and  commercial  depression  began,  culminating 
in  the  panic  of  1873.  The  barometer  of  immigration, 
always  sensitive  to  such  changes  in  the  industrial  atmo- 
sphere, began  to  fall,  though  there  was  no  rapid  move- 
ment until  the  panic  was  well  under  way.  In  fact,  immi- 
gration increased  to  459,803  in  1873;  but  it  fell  in  the 
following  year  to  313,339  and  then  steadily  diminished 
to  138,469  in  1878.  After  this  it  very  suddenly  increased 
again,  and  in  1882  it  reached  788,992 — the  largest 
immigration  of  any  year  except  1903,  1904,  and  1905. 

A  part  of  this  sudden  increase  in  1882  and  the  two 
subsequent  years,  must  be  ascribed  to  the  promulgation 
of  the  "  May  Laws  "  by  Russia,  which  caused  large  num- 


8  Immigration  and  Emigration 

bers  of  Hebrews  to  emigrate.8  Thus,  immigration  from 
Russia,  exclusive  of  Poland  and  Finland,  was  nearly 
four  times  as  great  in  1882  as  in  1881,  and  by  1890  was 
more  than  seven  times  as  great.  But,  in  addition  to  these 
special  causes,  there  seems  to  have  been  a  general  ad- 
vance all  along  the  line  of  nations.  One  reason  for  this 
may  have  been  the  enactment  by  Congress  of  the  first 
general  immigration  act  of  August  3,  1882,  and  the  fear 
that  this  might  be  the  forerunner  of  further  restrictive 
legislation,  a  fear  which  has  undoubtedly  operated  dur- 
ing the  last  two  or  three  years. 

After  1882  numbers  again  diminished,  making  an- 
other low  point  of  334,203  in  1886.  Then  an  increase 
took  place  until  the  total  reached  579,663  in  1892.  In 
1893  came  the  epidemic  of  cholera  in  the  East  and  quar- 
antine regulations  at  various  ports,  followed  by  a  period 
of  commercial  depression  lasting  from  1894  to  1898.  As 
a  result  of  these  causes,  immigration  fell  off  largely, 
touching  a  minimum  of  229,299  in  1898.  From  that  year 
it  rose  by  rapid  strides  to  648,743  in  1902 ;  to  857,046  in 
1903;  to  812,870  in  1904;  and  to  1,026,499  in  1905. 

The  total  for  1905  was  an  increase  of  26  per  cent,  over 
that  of  1904 ;  58  per  cent,  over  that  of  1902 ;  and  349  per 
cent,  over  that  of  1898.  The  record  for  a  single  day 
seems  to  have  been  reached  on  May  7,  1905,  when  12,000 
immigrants  entered  New  York  inside  of  twelve  hours. 

D.     SUMMARY 

It  appears  that  the  total  immigration  to  the  United 
States  from  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  to  1905 
was  not  far  from  twenty-three  millions,  a  movement  of 

8  As  to  the  detailed  working  of  these  laws  see  W.  Evans- 
Gordon,  The  Alien  Immigrant,  pp.  60-61,  96,  in,  124,  156. 


History  of  Immigration  9 

population  unprecedented  in  history.     This  was  divided 
by  decades  as  follows: 


1821  to  1830 143,439 

1831  to  1840 599,125 

1841  to  1850 1,713,251 

1851  to  1860 2,598,214 

1861  to   1870 2,314,824 

1871  to   1880 2,812,191 

1881  to   1890 5,246,613 

1891  to   1900 3,687,564 

1901  to  1905  (five  years) 3,833,076 


TOTAL,    1821-1905 22,948,297 

If  the  average  holds  to  the  end  of  the  present  decade 
the  number  for  1901-1910  will  be  nearly  eight  millions  of 
souls,  much  the  largest  contribution  on  record  for  the 
same  period.  It  need  surprise  no  one,  however,  if  the 
total  for  the  decade  should  be  twice  as  large  as  this,  for 
the  increase  in  the  last  few  years  is  enormous,  and  the 
general  tendency  during  the  past  century  has  been 
toward  a  steady  and  rapid  growth  of  the  immigration 
movement. 

Another  way  of  viewing  the  annual  immigration  is 
with  reference  to  the  volume  of  population  into  which 
it  flows.  This  has  the  advantage  of  showing  how  rela- 
tively small  the  annual  additions  are,  though  they  are 
enormous  compared  with  the  additions  to  the  population 
of  other  countries.  But  it  has  also  a  disadvantage  in  that 
it  takes  account  merely  of  numbers,  and  does  not  reckon 
with  the  character  or  racial  composition  either  of  the 
annual  additions  or  the  people  with  whom  they  are  to 
be  mixed. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  immigrants 
arriving  in  each  year,  from  1839  to  1901,  and  the  num- 
ber of  immigrants  to  10,000  population: 


IO  Immigration  and  Emigration 

FOREIGN    IMMIGRATION    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES  8 a 

Year  Number  of 

ending  Number  of                              immigrants  to 

Dec     SI  Immigrants                              io,oco  population 

1839 68,069  41 

1840 84,066  49 

1841 80,289  45 

1842 104,565  57 

Sept.  30. 

1844 78,615  40 

1845 "4,37i  57 

1846 I54»4i6  75 

1847 234,068  in 

1848 226,527  103 

1849 297,024  132 

1850 369,980  134 

1851 379,466  158 

1852 371,603  149 

1853 368,645  143 

1854 427,833  162 

1855 200,827  73 

1856 195,587  69 

1857 246,945  85 

1858 1 19,501  40 

1859 118,616  35 

1860 150,237  47 

1861 89,724  28 

1862 89,007  27 

1863 174,524  52 

1864 193,195  57 

1865 247,453  71 

1866 314,917  88 

1867 310,965  86 

June  30. 

1869 352,768  93 

1870 387,203  loo 

1871 321,350  81 

1872 404,806  99 

1873 459,803  no 

1874 313,339  73 

1875 227,408  51 

1876 169,986  37 

1877 141,857  30 

1878 138.469  29 

1879 177,826  36 

1880 457,257  9i 

1881 669,431  128 

83  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  19,  p.  958. 


History  of  Immigration                n 

Year  Number  of 

ending  Number  of                                immigrants  to 

TlinC   '30  Immigrant*                              10,000  population 

1882 788,992  150 

1883 603,322  112 

1884 518,592  94 

1885 395,346  70 

1886 334,203  58 

1887 490,109  85 

1888 546,889  91 

1889 444,427  72 

1890 455,302  72 

1891 560,319  88 

1892 579,663  88 

1893 439,730  64 

1894 285,631  42 

1895 258,536  37 

1806 343,267  48 

1897 230,832  32 

1898 229,299             30 

1899 3n,7i5             40 

1900 448,572             58 

1901 487,918  61 


It  will  be  noticed  that  while  in  such  a  table  it  would 
be  natural  for  the  index  numbers  to  grow  smaller  as  the 
population  grew  larger,  in  general  they  are  as  high  dur- 
ing the  past  twenty  years  as  during  the  periods  from 
1839  to  l846,  fr°m  1 855  to  I865»  and  from  1875  to  1880. 

The  only  times  when  immigration  exceeded  one  per 
cent,  of  the  receiving  population  were  the  period  1847- 
1854,  the  years  1870,  1873,  the  period  1881-1883,  and  the 
years  1903-1905. 

E.     EMIGRATION 

It  is  unfortunate  that  no  accurate  records  are  avail- 
able of  emigration  from  this  country.  The  Immigration 
Bureau  has  repeatedly  made  recommendations  for  sup- 
plying this  defect,  but  Congress  has  not  seen  fit  to  act, 


12  Immigration  and  Emigration 

and  consequently  the  only  figures  9  available  are  those  of 
the  transportation  companies,  supplemented  by  such 
guesswork  conclusions  as  can  be  drawn  from  the  census. 
The  census  obviously  cannot  furnish  very  accurate  data 
for  estimating  emigration,  because  persons  who  have 
been  in  the  country  more  than  once  may  figure  at  a  cer- 
tain date  in  the  census  and  a  year  or  two  later  in  the 
immigrant  arrivals. 

The  same  facilities'  for  cheap  and  rapid  transit  which 
operate  so  powerfully  to  encourage  immigration  are 
available  also  for  passage  in  the  other  direction.  Pas- 
sage from  New  York  to  European  ports  is  from  two 
to  ten  dollars  less  than  the  rate  to  this  country;  and  the 
number  of  domestic  servants,  for  example,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  these  rates  to  pass  a  summer  or  winter  abroad 
has  become  so  large  as  to  cause  comment.  In  1903,  east- 
bound  steerage  passengers,  according  to  figures  obtained 
by  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  numbered 
251,500;  and  for  the  decade  1891  to  1900,  excepting  the 
years  1896  and  1897,  for-  which  no  figures  are  available, 
the  number  was  1,229,909;  or  a  probable  total  for  the 
decade  of  i,529,9O9.10  At  certain  times  the  exodus  is 
larger  than  the  influx.  Thus,  during  the  period  from 
November  I  to  December  8,  1894,  the  number  of  emi- 
grants was  25,544,  while  immigrant  arrivals  for  the 
month  of  November  numbered  12,886. 

9  E.g.,  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration, 
1903,  p.  62. 

10  R.   P.  Faulkner,  "  The  Immigration  Problem,"  in  Political 
Science   Quarterly,  vol.    19,   pp.   37,   38.     The   argument   of  the 
American  Line  before  the  Senate  Committee  on  Immigration  of 
the  57th  Congress,  p.  24,  gave  the  eastbound  steerage  passengers 
for  the  period  1893  to  1901  as  1,281,936,  or  44  per  cent,  of  the 
westbound,  for  the  direct  lines ;  and  for  1895  to  1901  as  37,432,  or 
19  per  cent,  of  the  westbound,  for  the  Canadian  lines. 


History  of  Immigration  13 

The  hard  times  of  1893  caused  large  numbers  of 
Italians  to  return  home.  The  total  of  steerage  passen- 
gers sailing  from  New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Balti- 
more, New  Orleans,  and  Montreal  in  that  year  was 
268,037;  in  1894,  it  was  311,760.  The  Italian  Commis- 
sioner-General of  Emigration  states  that,  in  1903, 
214,157  Italians  went  to  the  United  States  and  78,233 
returned.11 

Naturally,  many  of  those  who  return  home,  come 
again  to  the  United  States  when  conditions  here  are 
more  favorable,  or  they  have  spent  the  money  accumu- 
lated while  in  this  country.  In  1898,  18  per  cent,  of  im- 
migrants had  been  in  this  country  before;  in  1901,  12 
per  cent.;  in  1903,  9  per  cent.;  in  1905,  17.1  per  cent. 
These  figures  do  not,  of  course,  show  how  often  the  im- 
migrants represented  have  been  in  the  United  States ; 
for  although  this  information  appears  to  some  extent 
upon  the  manifests,  it  is  not  tabulated  in  the  official  re- 
ports. From  a  personal  examination  of  the  manifests 
of  several  thousand  Italians  at  Ellis  Island,  New  York, 
the  writer  can  state  that  large  numbers  have  been  here 
two,  three,  four,  and  in  some  cases  six  or  more  times. 
In  view  of  this  the  inaccuracy  of  estimates  based  on  the 
census  becomes  even  more  apparent.  Poles,  Slovaks, 
and  other  mining  laborers  are  frequent  birds  of  passage ; 
and  in  the  case  of  Canadians  working  in  the  United 
States,  there  is  a  large  exodus  of  persons  returning  home, 
some  in  the  winter  and  some  in  the  summer,  according 
to  the  nature  of  their  occupation. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  in  accordance  with  the  recom- 
mendations of  the  Immigration  Bureau,  Congress  will 
require  the  collection  of  statistics  as  to  emigration. 

11  Report  of  the  Surgeon-General  of  the  United  States,  1904, 
p.  218. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  CAUSES  OF  IMMIGRATION 

A.      IN   GENERAL 

HISTORY,  from  one  standpoint,  may  be  considered  the 
story  of  race  migration  and  its  effects.  The  Tartar  inva- 
sion of  Europe,  the  Roman  invasion  and  conquest  of  a 
considerable  part  of  three  continents,  the  Germanic  in- 
vasion of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  invasion  of  America 
by  the  Spaniards  and  afterwards  by  the  English,  as  well 
as  the  peaceful  immigration  of  recent  times  on  an 
enormous  scale,  are  facts  of  the  greatest  magnitude. 

It  has  been  said  by  a  leading  biologist l  that  all 
organic  evolution  is  sympodial.  This  means  that,  when 
growth  has  taken  place  in  a  certain  way  for  a  time,  it 
takes  a  new  direction,  carrying  the  chief  vigor  of  the 
organism  with  it,  so  that  the  new  growth  becomes  more 
important  than  the  old,  the  latter  perhaps  dying  out 
entirely.  From  this  point  of  view  a  race  may  be  likened 
to  a  strawberry  plant,  which  after  growing  upward  and 
increasing,  sends  out  runners  and  establishes  new 
colonies  in  adjoining  soil,  with  the  result  that,  in  time, 
the  new  plants  become  more  vigorous  than  the  old, 
and  in  turn  send  out  their  runners.  According  to 
this  theory,  the  "  offshoots  "  of  a  race  are  indeed  not 
metaphorical,  but  examples  of  a  general  law  of  growth. 

In  general,  emigration  has  always  taken  a  westerly 
direction.  This  is  a  curious  phenomenon  which  has 
1  Lester  F.  Ward,  Pure  Sociology,  (1903). 


The  Causes  of  Immigration  15 

never  been  satisfactorily  explained.  Exceptions  have 
sometimes  occurred  for  special  reasons,  as  when  the 
northern  tribes  were  attracted  by  the  wealth  and  power 
of  Rome,  and  when  a  large  British  emigration  was 
drawn  by  the  gold  of  Australia,  and  the  wealth  of  India 
inspired  conquest.  But  in  the  case  of  the  Manchus,  Per- 
sians, Tartars,  Turks,  Hebrews,  Spaniards,  English,  and 
many  other  races,  the  general  direction  has  been 
westward. 

The  cause  of  migration,  sometimes  hard  to  trace  in 
detail,  is  for  the  most  part  the  overgrowth  of  popula- 
tion. This  creates  a  need  for  further  sustenance,  more 
space  and  new  opportunities ;  and  the  race  either  moves 
en  masse  to  seek  pastures  new,  or  a  part  splits  off,  just 
as  in  the  case  of  protozoa  which  propagate  by  fission. 
The  power  of  such  a  movement  is  tremendous.  De 
Tocqueville  wrote  of  American  immigration  in  1835, 
"  No  power  on  earth  can  close  upon  the  immigrant  that 
fertile  wilderness  which  offers  resources  to  all  industry 
and  a  refuge  from  all  want."  Sometimes  the  first  step  in 
this  process  is  war  with  a  neighboring  race;  and  a  con- 
quest may  result  in  unexpected  expansion,  as  was  the 
case  when  the  United  States  acquired  the  Philippine 
Islands.  If  peaceful  expansion  be  difficult  the  result  is 
either  race-suicide  or  war.  The  recent  conflict  between 
Japan  and  Russia  was  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
40,000,000  inhabitants  of  Japan  were  cooped  up  in  a 
territory  smaller  than  California,  and  required  an  oppor- 
tunity for  expansion. 

A  distinction  may  be  made  between  the  migration  of 
tribes  by  means  of  conquest,  and  peaceful  emigration 
which  is  the  movement  of  individual  units.  Indeed,  the 
latter  may  be  said  to  be  generally  a  movement  of  the 
conquered.  The  subjugation  of  colonies  has  always  been 


16  Immigration  and  Emigration 

undertaken  with  the  idea  of  increasing  the  power  and 
influence  of  the  home  country,  and,  until  very  recently, 
colonial  administration  has  always  been  conducted  for 
the  benefit  of  the  governing  race;  the  emigrating  in- 
dividuals have  been  leaders  at  home  and  abroad.  But 
the  Pilgrims  who  settled  New  England,  the  Huguenots 
banished  from  France,  the  Jews  driven  from  Spain,  and, 
later,  from  Russia  by  the  May  Laws,  and  the  Italians 
from  the  slums  of  Naples,  are  instances  of  individuals 
conquered  at  home.  The  inability  to  cope  with  home 
conditions  may  indeed  express  different  reactions  in  the 
cases  of  different  kinds  of  individuals.  It  is  an  am- 
biguous symptom,  and  may  betoken  a  most  enterprising 
and  aspiring  character,  or  a  "  beaten,"  atavistic  and 
valueless  nature.  The  million  or  more  Jews  who  were 
led  from  Egyptian  slavery  by  Moses  created  a  religious 
State  exerting  a  lasting  influence  upon  the  life  and 
thought  of  the  world.  The  Pilgrims  and  Puritans,  seek- 
ing liberty  and  a  chance  to  develop  a  new  and  lofty 
type  of  civil  and  religious  commonwealth,  produced  a 
civilization  which,  in  spite  of  obvious  defects,  has  ex- 
cited the  admiration  of  mankind.  Much  of  the  recent 
immigration,  however,  is  not  led  by  the  hope  of  bursting 
its  bonds,  but  by  the  allurements  of  promised  wealth 
and  material  comfort. 

In  general,  then,  migration  is  due  to  the  tendency  to 
follow  a  path  either  of  increased  attractiveness  or  of 
diminished  resistance.  Its  fluctuations  may  be  classed 
under  two  heads;  the  gradual  growth  exhibited  in  later 
periods  as  contrasted  with  earlier  ones,  and  the  interrup- 
tions to  this  steady  increase.  The  causes  of  these  fluc- 
tuations we  shall  now  examine. 


The  Causes  of  Immigration  17 

B.      PROSPERITY  OF  THIS  COUNTRY 

While  the  desire  to  escape  from  persecution  or  oppres- 
sion operated  chiefly  in  the  early  settlement  of  the  United 
States,  and  still  operates  in  a  few  cases,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  chief  influence  affecting  immigration  in 
recent  times  is  the  prosperity  of  this  country.  This  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  there  is  a  marked  relationship 
between  industrial  and  commercial  activity  in  the  United 
States  and  the  volume  of  immigration.  The  latter,  of 
course,  follows  upon  the  former,  and  usually  acquires  a 
certain  momentum  which  causes  it  to  continue  for  a  time 
after  the  demand  for  labor  here  has  diminished.2  In 
1837,  for  example,  the  total  immigration  was,  roughly 
speaking,  79,000;  after  the  panic  of  that  year  it  fell  of? 
in  1838  to  38,000.  In  1842,  the  total  was  104,000;  in 
1844,  after  a  depression,  it  was  78,000.  By  1854,  as  a 
result  of  the  famine  in  Ireland  and  the  political  revolu- 
tion in  Germany,  it  had  increased  to  427,000;  but  in  1860 
at  the  opening  of  the  Civil  War  it  fell  to  90,000.  After 
the  close  of  the  war  it  increased  until,  in  1872,  it  was 
438,000;  but  with  the  panic  it  fell,  in  1874,  to  261,000,  or 
nearly  one-half.  From  that  time  it  increased  to  a  maxi- 
mum of  730,000  in  1882.  Owing  in  a  measure  to  the 
passage  of  the  first  restrictive  law  and  the  contract  labor 
acts,  it  fell  off  in  1885  to  about  400,000.  It  then  in- 
creased somewhat ;  but  it  was  checked  in  1893  by  the 
cholera  epidemic  and  the  consequent  quarantine  regula- 
tions. Beginning  with  1894,  and  lasting  several  years, 
there  was  a  period  of  commercial  depression,  to  which 
the  agitation  of  the  currency  question  in  part  contrib- 

2  On  the  relation  between  prosperity  and  immigration  see  the 
author's  testimony  before  the  Industrial  Commission,  Report  of 
the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  49  ff,  and  the  chart 
annexed. 


i8  Immigration  and  Emigration 

uted;  and  in  1898  immigration  reached  the  very  low 
mark  of  229,000.  From  this  point  there  was  a  very  rapid 
rise,  until,  in  1903,  the  highest  point  hitherto  reached  was 
attained,  viz.,  857,000.  In  1894,  owing  in  some  degree 
to  the  closing  or  partial  shutting  down  of  many  mills,  the 
presidential  election,  and  probably,  in  larger  part,  to  the 
difficulty  of  finding  employment  for  the  enormous  num- 
bers of  the  few  preceding  years,  the  total  again  fell  off ; 
but  in  1905  the  high  water  mark  of  1,026,499  was  attained. 

The  commercial  activity  of  this  country  not  merely 
induces  immigrants  to  desire  to  come;  it  makes  their 
coming  possible.  The  testimony  before  the  Industrial 
Commission  3  disclosed  the  fact  that  40  to  55  per  cent, 
of  those  who  arrive  (some  estimates  range  as  high  as 
60  per  cent.),  have  their  passage  prepaid  by  friends  or 
relatives  in  this  country,  and  from  10  to  25  per  cent, 
more  buy  their  tickets  abroad  with  money  sent  from 
the  United  States.  The  money  used  to  enable  friends 
and  relatives  of  immigrants  already  here  to  emigrate  to 
this  country,  must  come  from  the  latter's  savings;  and 
the  amount  of  such  savings  depends  upon  the  relation  of 
wages  to  the  cost  of  living,  and  upon  the  steadiness  of 
employment. 

Knowledge  of  industrial  conditions  in  this  country  is 
conveyed  abroad  through  many  channels.  Perhaps  the 
most  common  are  the  newspapers  and  the  personal  let- 
ters of  friends  or  relatives.  There  are  also  doubtless 
many  employment  agencies  abroad  which  are  familiar 
with  conditions  here,  and  which  let  it  be  known  that  if 
laborers  of  a  certain  type  go  to  a  certain  place  in  the 
United  States  they  can  find  work.  This  is  not  a  violation 
of  the  contract  labor  law,  for  there  is  no  contract  to 

3  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  95,  104) 
115,  118. 


The  Causes  of  Immigration  19 

labor ;  it  is  not  even  an  "  offer,  solicitation,  promise  or 
agreement "  to  give  employment  within  the  present  law. 

One  other  important  aspect  of  the  relation  between 
prosperity  and  immigration  may  be  noted:  that  in  times 
of  depression  it  is  in  skilled  immigrants  that  the  decrease 
takes  place.  This  is  due,  in  part,  to  the  better  knowledge 
of  trade  conditions  on  the  part  of  such  persons,  and  in 
part  to  the  fact  that  many  public  and  quasi-public  works 
go  on  in  times  of  commercial  stagnation ;  while  the  mills 
and  factories  which  employ  the  higher  class  of  skilled 
labor  are  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  shut  down.  Further, 
unskilled  labor  is  more  mobile,  and  can  take  up  easily 
any  unskilled  occupation  in  any  locality;  also,  as  it  is 
largely  unmarried.,  it  can  accommodate  itself  more  readily 
to  a  reduction  of  wages.  The  skilled  workman  as  a 
rule,  can  do  but  one  thing;  frequently  he  has  a  family 
and  dislikes  to  change  his  residence.  Foreign  skilled 
workmen  know  that  if  they  come  to  this  country  in  a 
time  of  industrial  depression,  they  run  a  great  risk 
of  being  forced  into  the  ranks  of  the  unskilled,  and  they 
prefer  to  remain  in  their  native  surroundings  until  they 
can  emigrate  with  the  assurance  of  permanent  and  profit- 
able employment. 

For  certain  kinds  of  unskilled  labor  there  is  a  steady 
demand  at  all  times.  A  good  example  is  the  domestic 
servants.  One-third  of  the  three  hundred  intelligence 
offices  in  New  York  City  depend  on  foreign-born  resi- 
dents and  their  children  for  their  supply ;  fully  another 
third  depend  upon  recent  arrivals;4  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  employment  offices  stimulate  the  immigra- 
tion of  this  class,  just  as  the  padroni  do  in  the  case  of 
unskilled  male  laborers. 

4  F.  A.  Kellor,  "  Immigration  and  Household  Labor,"  in 
Charities,  vol.  12,  pp.  151-2,  (Feb.  6,  1904). 


2O  Immigration  and  Emigration 

C.      RELIGIOUS   PERSECUTION     AND     POLITICAL    OPPRESSION 

In  the  early  settlement  of  the  country,  religious  and 
political  persecution  had  no  small  part  in  promoting  im- 
migration. The  flight  of  the  Pilgrims  from  England,  of 
the  Quakers  to  Pennsylvania,  and  of  the  Huguenots  ex- 
pelled by  Louis  XIV.,  are  well  known  to  everyone. 
Again,  after  the  revolution  of  1848  in  Germany,  and 
after  the  partition  of  Poland,  many  political  refugees 
came  to  this  country  and  helped  build  up  our  Middle 
States.  At  the  present  time  comparatively  few  instances 
of  persecution,  whether  on  account  of  political  or  re- 
ligious opinions,  take  place.  The  chief  exceptions  are 
the  cases  of  the  Armenians  fleeing  from  Turkey  and  the 
Jews  coming  from  Russia  to  avoid  oppressive  legisla- 
tion. But  even  in  the  case  of  the  Jews,  it  is  probable 
that  the  numbers  fleeing  from  actual  persecution  are 
relatively  small,  and  that  the  bulk  of  immigration  comes 
from  fear  of  persecution  and  to  escape  the  grinding  op- 
pression which>  however  hard  to  bear,  is  not  to  be  con- 
fused with  the  fanatical  outbreaks  of  slaughter  and 
violence. 

The  history  of  Russian  legislation  affecting  the  Jews 
is  a  long  one  and  cannot  be  adequately  treated  here.5 
One  of  the  principal  objects  of  the  Russian  government 
is  to  Russianize  all  subjects  of  the  Czar,  and  this  implies 
as  an  ideal  the  universal  dominion  of  the  Greek  Ortho- 
dox Church  as  well  as  of  the  State.  It  should,  therefore, 
be  borne  in  mind  in  speaking  of  the  question  of  the  Rus- 
sian Jew,  that  the  Polish  Roman  Catholics  are  quite  as 
much  oppressed  in  Russia  as  the  Jews  themselves.  The 
recent  attempts  to  Russianize  Finland  have  resulted  in 
the  emigration  of  large  numbers  of  Stundists,  Doukho- 
bors,  and  others.  The  general  policy  of  Russia  is  to 
5  See  Major  W.  Evans-Gordon,  The  Alien  Immigrant. 


The  Causes  of  Immigration  21 

restrict  the  Jews  within  a  circumscribed  territory,  in- 
cluding what  was  formerly  the  kingdom  of  Poland  and 
certain  contiguous  western  provinces.  This,  known  as 
the  Jewish  Pale,  was  first  established  in  1786.  In  1897 
the  number  of  Jews  in  the  Russian  Empire  according  to 
the  census  was  5,189,401 ;  of  these,  1,316,576  were  in 
Poland,  and  3,607,373  were  in  Russia.  A  few  espe- 
cially favored  classes,  amounting  to  a  small  percentage  of 
the  total,  are  allowed  to  reside  outside  the  Pale.  Under 
the  "  May  Laws,"  often  mentioned  in  this  connection, 
enacted  in  1882,  all  the  Jews,  except  those  who  could 
prove  a  right  of  residence  in  small  towns  and  villages, 
were  obliged  to  move  into  the  large  towns.  The  May 
Laws  have  thus  created  the  Ghetto  conditions  in  Russia, 
and  have  caused  much  of  the  Hebrew  emigration  since 
they  were  passed.  The  congestion  in  the  cities  and 
large  towns  has  resulted  not  only  in  disease,  but  in  over- 
crowding industries  and  lowering  the  standard  of  living. 
This  result  is  intensified  by  the  fact  that  only  a  few  occu- 
pations are  open  to  the  Jews,  and  that  public  work, 
including  transportation  and  its  branches,  is  entirely 
closed  to  them.  Roumania  was  created  a  kingdom  by 
the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  which  especially  stipulated  for  the 
complete  civil  and  religious  liberty  of  the  Jews.  The 
Roumanian  government,  however,  has  since  surpassed 
even  the  Russian  in  its  oppressive  laws.8  If  the  oft- 
promised  liberal  reforms  should  take  place  in  Russia, 
Jewish  emigration  from  that  country  might  consider- 
ably diminish.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Aliens  Bill 
recently  enacted  by  Great  Britain  is  likely  to  turn  many 
of  the  most  undesirable  of  this  race  to  the  United  States. 

6  For  further  details  see  Dr.  Richard  Gottheil,  in  World's 
Work,  pp.  3689-3693  (July,  1903).  The  article  also  contains  a 
sketch  of  anti-semitism  in  other  countries. 


22  Immigration  and  Emigration 

Most  of  the  8,581,000  Jews  still  in  Europe  are  in 
Russia,  Austria,  the  Balkan  States  and  Germany,  and 
are  subject  to  more  or  less  unfavorable  discrimination. 
They  may,  therefore,  at  any  time  still  further  increase 
the  number  now  in  this  country.  The  fear  that  an 
anti-semitic  feeling  may  arise  in  the  United  States,  if 
Hebrew  immigration  keeps  its  present  level,  is  leading 
some  Jewish  leaders  to  try  to  check  the  influx  and  to 
divert  immigration  to  other  countries. 

D.      FACILITY   OF  TRANSIT 

It  is  obvious  that  the  cost  and  the  degree  of  hardship 
involved  in  coming  to  this  country  must  be  an  important 
factor  in  determining  the  volume  of  immigration  at  any 
particular  time.  The  great  change  which  has  come  over 
conditions  of  immigration  in  this  respect  is  well  de- 
scribed by  General  Francis  A.  Walker  7  as  follows : 

"  Fifty,  even  thirty,  years  ago,  there  was  a  rightful 
presumption  regarding  the  average  immigrant  that 
he  was  among  the  most  enterprising,  thrifty,  alert,  ad- 
venturous, and  courageous,  of  the  community  from 
which  he  came.  It  required  no  small  energy,  prudence, 
forethought,  and  pains  to  conduct  the  inquiries  relating 
to  his  migration,  to  accumulate  the  necessary  means,  and 
to  find  his  way  across  the  Atlantic.  To-day  the  presump- 
tion is  completely  reversed.  So  thoroughly  has  the 
Continent  of  Europe  been  crossed  by  railways,  so  effec- 
tively has  the  business  of  emigration  there  been  ex- 
ploited, so  much  have  the  rates  of  railroad  fares  and 
ocean  passage  been  reduced,  that  it  is  now  among  the 
least  thrifty  and  prosperous  members  of  any  European 
community  that  the  emigration  agent  finds  his  best  re- 
cruiting-ground. The  care  and  pains  required  have  been 

7  Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics,  vol.  2,  p.  446.  Cp. 
Bryce,  American  Commonwealth,  vol.  2,  p.  726. 


The  Causes  of  Immigration  23 

reduced  to  a  minimum ;  while  the  agent  of  the  Red  Star 
Line  or  the  White  Star  Line  is  everywhere  at  hand,  to 
suggest  migration  to  those  who  are  not  getting  on  well 
at  home.  The  intending  emigrants  are  looked  after  from 
the  moment  they  are  locked  into  the  cars  in  their  native 
village  until  they  stretch  themselves  upon  the  floors  of 
the  buildings  on  Ellis  Island,  in  New  York.  Illustra- 
tions of  the  ease  and  facility  with  which  this  Pipe  Line 
Immigration  is  now  carried  on  might  be  given  in 
profusion." 

In  1900  over  $118,000,000  was  invested  in  trans- 
atlantic steamship  lines,  and  these  to-day  are  largely 
owned  by  foreigners.  .  The  multiplication  of  lines,  espe- 
cially the  new  ones  to  the  Mediterranean,  the  increase  in 
the  number  of  sailings,  and  the  size  of  the  ships,  have 
all  made  it  easier  and  cheaper  for  an  immigrant  to  come 
to  this  country.  The  sea  formerly  acted  as  a  sieve,  now 
the  meshes  let  through  every  species  of  voyager.  Fur- 
thermore, in  spite  of  the  consolidation  of  many  lines  into 
the  International  Mercantile  Marine  Company,  there  is 
still,  as  there  always  has  been,  a  certain  amount  of  rate 
cutting  which  gives  an  exceptional  opportunity  for  the 
immigration  of  the  poorer  classes.  For  example,  in  July, 
1894,  the  Cunard,  White  Star,  Hamburg- American,  and 
American  Lines  charged  from  South  Liverpool  or  Lon- 
don to  New  York  $15,  and  for  the  return  trip  $10.  In 
the  summer  of  1904,  a  rate  war  resulted  in  the  reduction 
of  the .  steerage  passage  from  Liverpool  to  New  York 
to  $8.75,  and  from  London  or  Liverpool  to  Quebec  to 
$10.  The  American  Line  for  a  short  time  carried  pas- 
sengers to  Philadelphia  for  $7.50.  Of  course,  these  rate 
wars  are  usually  of  short  duration,  and,  since  1880, 
numerous  pooling  and  other  agreements  have  been 
effected  to  maintain  a  high  level  of  rates,  in  fact  to  keep 
them  considerably  above  what  they  were  in  1880.  Thus, 


24  Immigration  and  Emigration 

in  1901,  the  rate  from  Naples  to  New  York  was  $28, 
from  Bremen  $36.50,  and  from  Antwerp  $29.50.®  Never- 
theless, the  general  tendency  of  steerage  rates  in  recent 
times  has  been  to  become  lower,  and  this  could  hardly 
be  otherwise,  considering  the  competition  and  the  dimin- 
ished cost  of  carrying  immigrants.  The  food  consumed 
during  the  voyage  costs  less  than  $1.50  a  day,  and  the 
immigrant  is  the  cheapest  kind  of  cargo  to  carry,  for 
he  loads  and  unloads  himself  and  his  baggage.  From 
1859  to  1882  the  average  steerage  rate  as  indicated  in 
Boston  and  London  newspapers  was  about  $30.  Be- 
ginning with  January  I,  1883,  the  price  was  reduced  to 
about  $21.  In  1885,  it  was  once  more  reduced  to  $15; 
but  in  1886  it  rose  to  $25.  Special  railroad  rates  are 
usually  made  in  connection  with  steamship  steerage 
rates,  both  to  interior  points  in  this  country  and  in 
Europe  from  the  immigrant's  home  to  the  seaboard. 
These  likewise  are  subject  to  fluctuations  from  time  to 
time.  In  1896,  the  immigrant  rate  from  New  York  to 
Chicago  was  only  $13. 

Before  the  formation  of  the  International  Mercantile 
8  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  p.  xiv.  In 
1904  the  steerage  rates  from  the  countries  named  below  to  New 
York,  as  reported  by  our  consuls,  were  as  follows,  i.e.  $5  to  $8 
higher  than  in  former  years,  according  to  Special  Consular  Re- 
ports, vol.  30: 

Austria-Hungary    (Fiume  to  New  York) $38-41 

Belgium    (Antwerp) 17-36 

France     ( Havre) -35 

Greece     (Piraeus) 35 

Italy    ( Naples) 27-39 

Denmark    (Copenhagen) 32-35 

Norway    (Christiania) 32-36 

Spain     ( Barcelona) 49 

England    (Liverpool) 25-38 

Japan   (Yokohama  to  San  Francisco) 33 

The  rate  from  this  country  to  Europe  is  generally  from  $2  to 
$5  less  than  in  the  reverse  direction. 


The  Causes  of  Immigration  25 

Marine  Company  and  its  understandings  with  other 
lines,  and  to  some  extent  since,  the  steerage  rates  have 
been  fixed  in  Europe  by  the  companies  for  the  purpose 
of  avoiding  rate  cutting  and  undue  competition.  There  are 
three  "  conferences  "  of  transatlantic  lines — the  North 
Atlantic,  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Continental.9  By 
means  of  these  rates  were  forced  up  to  the  figures  given 
for  1901 ;  but  even  at  that  point  they  were  much  lower 
than  they  were  twenty  years  earlier.  It  is  admitted  by 
the  steamship  companies  that  rates  cannot  be  advanced 
much  more  without  a  falling  off  in  traffic.  But  low  rates 
alone  do  not  seem  to  have  a  very  powerful  effect  in 
stimulating  immigration. 

As  has  been  said,  steamship  lines  are  being  extended 
to  ports  with  which  we  had  but  little  or  no  direct  com- 
munication a  few  years  ago.  Every  such  extension 
means  more  immigrants.  Italians  have  increased  notice- 
ably in  Boston  since  the  Dominion  Line  steamers  first  be- 
gan to  run  thence  to  Mediterranean  ports.  The  Cunard 
Line  also  has  recently  undertaken  a  fight  for  a  share  of 
the  Mediterranean  steerage  traffic,  and  has  even  gone  so 
far  as  to  get  the  Hungarian  government  to  guarantee 
that  30,000  immigrants  a  year  would  ship  from  its  terri- 
tory. This  brings  us  to  the  next  point  to  be  considered, 
the  methods  used  by  the  steamship  companies  to  obtain 
passengers. 

E.      SOLICITATION    BY   STEAMSHIP  AGENTS10 

The  present  law  forbids  transportation  companies  or 
the  owners  of  vessels  to  "  directly  or  through  agents, 
either  by  writing,  printing  or  oral  solicitations,  solicit, 

8  See  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  107- 
109,  118. 

10  Cp.  infra,  chapter  xi.,  C. 


26  Immigration  and  Emigration 

invite  or  encourage  the  immigration  of  any  aliens  into  the 
United  States  except  by  ordinary  commercial  letters,  cir- 
culars, advertisements  or  oral  representations,  stating  the 
sailings  of  their  vessels  and  terms  and  facilities  of  trans- 
portation therein."  Nevertheless,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
a  large  part  of  the  present  emigration  is  neither  spon- 
taneous nor  normal.  It  is  rather  a  process  of  artificial 
selection  of  population  on  the  part  of  the  steamship  com- 
panies, who  induce  whomever  they  can  to  emigrate,  pro- 
vided the  person  is  reasonably  sure  to  pass  inspection. 
Indeed,  the  companies  have  not  alwrays  stopped 
here.  The  practice  of  requiring  the  payment  of  double 
passage  money  from  immigrants,  making  a  profit  on  the 
return  trip  if  they  were  rejected,  and  keeping  the  return 
passage  money  if  they  were  admitted,  at  one  time  be- 
came so  common  that  the  Italian  government  was 
obliged  to  pass  a  law  giving  the  immigrant  a  right  of 
action  to  recover  the  money  for  the  return  passage. 
Since  the  act  of  March  3,  1903,  imposing  upon  any 
steamship  company  bringing  a  diseased  alien  a  fine  of 
$100,  it  is  alleged  that  in  some  cases  not  only  the  return 
passage  money  but  the  amount  of  the  fine  has  been  de- 
manded; then  the  immigrant  has  been  brought  on  the 
chance  of  his  getting  in.  These  extreme,  and  it  is  to 
be  hoped  unusual,  cases  are  mentioned  in  this  place  to 
show  the  great  competition  which  exists  in  getting  the 
immigrant  business. 

The  number  of  regularly  employed  and  paid  steamship 
agents  in  Europe  is  enormous.  The  Red  Star  Line  alone 
formerly  had  1500  of  them.  But  in  addition  to  the  regu- 
lar agents,  who  are  supplied  with  copies  of  the  American 
immigration  laws  and  are  supposed  to  enforce  them, 
there  are  thousands  of  other  persons  in  the  smaller  towns 
in  the  interior  of  Europe  who  act  as  agents  by  making 


The  Causes  of  Immigration  27 

a  commission  on  the  sale  of  tickets.  It  is  claimed  by  the 
steamship  companies  that  these  men  are  entirely  un- 
known to  them,  that  they  have  no  control  over  their  acts, 
and  are  not  responsible  for  the  representations  they 
may  make.  In  many  cases  this  is  no  doubt  true.  Never- 
theless, the  companies  are  partly  responsible  for  allow- 
ing tickets  to  be  sold  at  a  discount  or  by  other  persons 
than  their  regular  agents.  It  seems,  moreover,  true  that 
many  immigrants  have  been  induced  to  sell  their  little 
farms  or  houses  and  frequently  to  expend  their  whole 
capital  in  coming  to  the  United  States,  on  the  representa- 
tions of  agents,  or  persons  working  under  them,  as  to 
the  fabulous  wealth  of  this  country,  the  ease  of  accumu- 
lating a  fortune,  and  the  amount  of  public  land  to  be  had 
for  the  asking.  The  present  writer  has  more  than  once 
seen  immigrants  throw  their  cooking  utensils  overboard 
in  an  American  harbor  believing  that  all  they  had  to  do 
was  to  pick  up  news  ones  on  reaching  land. 

In  addition  to  the  solicitations  of  the  countless  steam- 
ship agents  and  sub-agents  abroad,  there  is  perhaps  an 
equal  and  more  effective  pressure  by  steamship  agents  in 
this  country.  As  has  already  been  shown,  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  immigrants  come  to  this  country 
on  prepaid  tickets ;  and  no  doubt  the  wish  of  those  here 
to  send  for  friends  or  relatives  is  often  made  concrete 
and  effective  by  the  solicitation  of  some  drummer-up  of 
business  in  the  resident's  neighborhood. 

F.      ASSISTED  IMMIGRATION 

In  the  earlier  periods  of  European  history,  emigra- 
tion was  not  favored,  inasmuch  as  it  was  a  distinct  loss 
to  the  industrial  and  military  powers  of  the  various 
nations.  Toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  be- 
ginning of  the  nineteenth  century,  for  example,  various 


28  Immigration  and  Emigration 

cantonal  governments  of  Switzerland  forbade  emigra- 
tion entirely.  At  a  later  time,  the  increase  of  popula- 
tion, combined  with  the  enormous  pressure  of  military 
taxation,  created  a  desire  to  emigrate  on  the  part  of 
many  citizens  of  the  more  populous  countries.  Although 
with  the  people  it  has  been  the  desire  to  escape  from 
hard  economic  conditions  and  from  military  service 
which  has  led  them  to  seek  new  homes  in  the  colonies  of 
their  own  country  or  in  the  United  States,  the  object 
of  the  governments  has  been  a  different  one.  The  gov- 
ernments, like  the  people,  have  realized  the  advantages 
of  a  certain  amount  of  emigration ;  but  they  have  desired 
to  limit  it  to  such  members  of  the  community  as  were 
undesirable  at  home,  and  to  keep  the  young  and  stal- 
wart citizens  within  the  country  for  reasons  which  are 
chiefly  military.11  With  this  object  in  view,  although 
emigration  is  nowhere  totally  prohibited  at  the  present 
time,  European  governments  have  placed  much  red  tape 
and  many  regulations  in  the  way  of  intending  emigrants. 
Thus,  in  Italy,  able-bodied  young  men  must  have  served 
in  the  army  before  emigration  is  possible.  The  practical 
result  is  that  more  Italians  than  Frenchmen  emigrate 
from  France.  For  some  time  Austria  took  very  stringent 
measures  to  prevent  emigration,  with  the  result  that, 
whenever  collusion  with  the  police  was  not  feasible,  men 
walked  a  hundred  miles  by  devious  and  obscure  routes 
and  byways  to  escape  the  gendarmes.  In  some  cases,  as 
the  result  of  representations  made  by  the  United  States, 
these  governments  have  undertaken  to  prevent  the  emi- 

11  See  report  of  Consul-General  Jussen  as  to  Austrian  emigra- 
tion (1886)  ;  Special  Consular  Report  on  European  Emigration 
by  F.  L.  Dingley,  p.  248  et  passim,  ( 1890)  ;  Special  Consular 
Reports,  vol.  30  (1904)  ;  J.  D.  Whelpley,  The  Problem  of  the 
Immigrant, 


The  Causes  of  Immigration  29 

gration  of  convicts  and  other  undesirable  persons ;  but, 
as  a  practical  matter,  those  who  are  undesirable  find 
much  less  difficulty  in  escaping  and  finding  passage  to 
this  country. 

In  general,  too,  it  may  be  said  that  foreign  nations 
have  been  only  too  glad  to  get  rid  of  the  economic  bur- 
den of  their  dependent  and  delinquent  citizens.  During 
the  nineteenth  century  there  were  many  instances  where 
governments,  especially  municipal  and  local  governments, 
adopted  the  plan  of  shipping  paupers,  insane,  and  dis- 
eased persons  to  the  United  States^  As  the  average  cost 
of  supporting  dependents  and  delinquents  in  the  United 
States  is  not  far  from  $150  per  capita  a  year,  and  as 
the  cost  of  transporting  such  a  person  from  Europe  to 
the  United  States  would  in  most  cases  not  exceed  $50, 
the  gain  to  the  home  country  adopting  a  policy  of  ex- 
porting their  undesirable  citizens  is  obvious.  During 
the  latter  half  of  the  last  century  the  Swiss  governments 
were  especial  offenders  in  this  respect.12  The  same  was 
true  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  The  British  Local 
Government  Board  has  had  the  right  since  1834  to  use 
money  raised  by  taxes  to  assist  poor  persons  and  pau- 
pers to  emigrate,  and  their  report  for  1886  shows  that, 
in  the  preceding  thirty-five  years,  over  40,000  persons 
had  been  sent  out  of  the  country,  and  three-quarters  of 
a  million  of  dollars  expended  in  that  way.  The  poor 
law  guardians  in  Ireland  were  enabled  in  1849  *°  borrow 
money  to  assist  emigration,  then  thought  to  be  a  solu- 
tion for  the  conditions  resulting  from  the  famine.  The 
Land  Act  of  1881  authorized  loans  of  $1,000,000  to  assist 
emigration,  and  the  Acts  of  1882  and  1883  authorized 
$1,000,000  more.  In  1884  and  1885,  over  16,000  persons 
were  sent  from  Galway  and  Mayo  counties  in  Ireland 
12  Mayo-Smith,  p.  170. 


3O  Immigration  and  Emigration 

by  the  government,  which  also  assisted  the  Tuke  Com- 
mittee, a  private  philanthropic  enterprise,  in  the  emigra- 
tion of  half  as  many  more. 

The  United  States  government  protested  from  time 
to  time  against  this  action,13  and,  when  the  protests 
were  ignored,  resorted  to  legislation,  excluding  certain 
classes  of  aliens.  Thus  the  Act  of  1875  forbade  the 
landing  of  persons  who  were  undergoing  a  sentence 
for  conviction  in  their  own  country  for  felonious 
crimes  other  than  political,  or  whose  sentence  had 
been  remitted  on  condition  of  their  emigration.  The 
Act  of  1882  excluded  persons  unable  to  take  care 
of  themselves  without  becoming  public  charges;  and 
since  1891,  assisted  immigrants  have  been  especially 
mentioned  in  the  law  in  addition  to  the  other  classes  to 
which  many  of  those  previously  assisted  belonged. 
Thus,  in  addition  to  idiots,  insane  persons,  epileptics, 
persons  likely  to  become  a  public  charge,  professional 
beggars  and  convicts,  the  present  law  excludes  "  any 
person  whose  ticket  or  passage  is  paid  for  with  the 
money  of  another,  or  is  assisted  by  others  to  come,  unless 
it  is  affirmatively  and  satisfactorily  shown  that  such  per- 
son does  not  belong  to  one  of  the  foregoing  excluded 
classes;  but  this  section  shall  not  be  held  to  prevent 
persons  living  in  the  United  States  from  sending  for  a 
relative  or  friend  who  is  not  of  the  foregoing  excluded 
classes." 

In  spite  of  these  provisions,  however,  large  numbers 
of  dependents  and  delinquents  are  undoubtedly  even 
now  assisted,  both  by  public  and  private  agencies,  to 
come  to  the  United  States.  It  is  said,  for  example,  that 

13  Foreign  Relations  with  the  United  States,  1879-1889,  Corre- 
spondence with  Mr.  Fish,  charge  dcs  affaires  at  Berne ;  Corre- 
spondence Relating  to  the  Right  of  the  United  States  of  De- 
porting Aliens  and  State-Assisted  Emigrants,  London,  1887. 


The  Causes  of  Immigration  31 

though  the  British  government  itself  has  discontinued 
giving  wholesale  aid  to  criminals  and  paupers,  the  local 
authorities  still  endeavor  to  pass  them  along  from  their 
respective  jurisdictions,  and  that  many  finally  emigrate 
to  the  United  States,  especially  through  Canada. 14 

The  number  of  persons  assisted  to  emigrate  by 
societies  and  associations  is  doubtless  far  larger  than  that 
assisted  by  general  or  local  governments.  Mention  of 
some  of  these  societies  has  already  been  made.  The 
Baron  Hirsch  Fund,  the  Jewish  Board  of  Guardians,  the 
Self-Help  Emigration  Society  of  London,  the  Prisoners' 
Aid  Society,  the  Munich  Society  for  Assisting  Dis- 
charged Convicts,  are  merely  examples  of  numerous 
agencies  which  have  been  at  work  for  longer  or  shorter 
periods  in  this  direction. 

But,  after  all,  the  great  proportion  of  assisted  immi- 
grants are  helped  by  relatives  or  friends  in  this  country. 

14  The  Twenty-seventh  Annual  Report  of  the  New  York  State 
Board  of  Charities  ( 1894) ,  p.  xx,  says : 

"  During  the  ten  years  from  1883  to  1893,  the  expenditures 
have  doubled,  showing  a  ratio  of  increase  nearly  four  times 
greater  than  that  of  the  State's  population.  Such  a  disparity 
excites  apprehension  that  the  attractiveness  and  scope  of  our 
systems  of  relief  may  draw  inmates  from  abroad,  a  possibility 
that  may  be  considered  in  connection  with  the  statement  that  60 
to  70  per  cent,  of  foreign-born  persons  is  not  an  unusual  esti- 
mate of  residents  in  them." 

Again,  on  p.  Ixv,  in  speaking  of  alien  paupers  sent  back 
to  Europe  during  the  year,  it  is  said: 

"  The  examinations  showed  that  they  were  intentionally  de- 
ported from  their  several  homes  in  Europe  and  their  passage 
paid  to  this  country  by  the  following  agencies,  -viz:  By  cities 
and  towns  5 ;  by  various  charitable  and  benevolent  associations  and 
societies  and  immigration  agencies  47;  by  relatives,  guardians 
and  friends  46;  by  contractors  under  agreement  to  labor  30; 
total  128."  Cp.  "  European  Emigration "  by  F.  L.  Dingley,  in 
Special  Consular  Reports,  (1890). 


32  Immigration  and  Emigration 

The  amount  of  money  sent  abroad  for  this  purpose  is 
enormous ; 15  and  the  steamship  companies  have  been 
quick  to  recognize  this  factor  in  promoting  their  busi- 
ness. The  result  is,  that  there  is  a  large  number  of 
agents  in  all  parts  of  this  country,  engaged  in  stimulat- 
ing emigration.  In  the  case  of  the  German  lines,  nearly 
every  German  settlement  in  the  United  States  has  steam- 
ship agents,  who  are  often  the  editors  of  German  news- 
papers and  leading  members  of  German  societies.  Simi- 
lar conditions  exist  in  respect  to  the  other  lines.  Mayo- 
Smith  states  that  in  1890  the  Inman  Line  had  3400,  and 
the  Anchor  Line  2500  such  agents ;  and  that  the  number 
of  prepaid  passages  ranged  from  10  to  50  per  cent.  As 
an  agent  makes  a  commission  of  about  three  dollars  on 
each  prepaid  ticket  sold,  the  inducement  to  develop  this 
branch  of  the  business,  through  the  employment  of 
boarding-house  keepers,  liquor  dealers  and  others  in 
touch  with  the  people,  as  agents  and  sub-agents,  is  ap- 
parent. Agents  in  America,  however,  often  have  rela- 
tions with  correspondents  abroad,  and  undertake  to  care 
for  immigrants  upon  their  arrival  and  to  find  work  for 
them,  thereby  nullifying  to  a  large  extent  the  provi- 
sions of  the  contract  labor  law.  Some  agents  in  Europe 
have  made  a  specialty  of  shipping  immigrants  unfit  to 
pass  inspection  at  American  ports  to  Canada,  and  later 
smuggling  them  across  the  border.  Those  who  are 
interested  in  this  method  of  evading  the  law  will  find  the 
details  in  the  report  of  Inspector  Marcus  Braun,  in  the 
Commissioner-General's  Reports  for  1903  and  I9O4.16 

15  See  infra,   chapter  iv.,   A.     The   Dingley   Consular   Report 
says :     "  The  enormous  sums  of  money  which  the  United  States 
is  sending  annually  to  Europe  by  '  prepaids '  are  the  basis  of  the 
prosperity  of  great  fleets  of  foreign  steamships." 

16  See   also   infra,    chapter   xi.,   E,    and    House   Reports,   SOth 
Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  No.  3792   (Report  of  Ford  Committee). 


The  Causes  of  Immigration  33 

It  is  apparent,  too,  that,  in  the  case  of  the  unfit,  assist- 
ance in  the  form  of  coaching  to  pass  the  inspection,  and 
information  as  to  easy  routes  to  enter  the  country,  may 
be  of  as  much  value  to  the  immigrant  and  detriment  to 
the  United  States  as  assistance  in  money,  against  which 
the  act  is  specifically  directed.  But  in  many  instances 
both  kinds  of  assistance  are  used,  and  fraud  is  the  means 
of  making  the  prepaid  ticket  available. 


G.     OTHER  CAUSES 

There  are  many  other  factors  in  the  fluctuation  of 
immigration,  such  as  war,  epidemics  with  the  resulting 
quarantine,  and  the  development  or  extinction  of  particu- 
lar industries  requiring  a  special  kind  of  labor.  The 
development  of  fruit-growing  in  California,  for  ex- 
ample, has  led  to  the  immigration  of  many  Italians  into 
that  State. 

One  of  the  most  important  causes,  however,  and  one 
very  little  noticed,  is  the  protective  tariff.17  The  tariff 
has  the  effect  not  only  of  developing  certain  industries 
in  this  country,  but  of  shutting  out  foreign  goods  from 
our  market  in  these  industries.  It  creates,  therefore,  a 
demand  for  certain  kinds  of  labor,  and  at  the  same  time 
it  destroys  the  demand  for  certain  sorts  of  foreign  goods. 
The  moment  you  make  the  tariff  high  enough,  especially 
if  the  labor  in  protected  industries  is  well  organized, 
and  the  rate  of  wages  high,  the  goods  will  be  shut  out 
and  the  producers  of  the  goods  will  come  in. 

Mention  may  also  be  made  of  the  influence  of  new 
machinery  upon  immigration.  In  the  earlier  days  of 
the  country  many  hands  were  needed  for  the  building  of 

J7  Cp.  J.  R.  Commons,  in  Chauiauquan,  vol.  39,  p.  20,  (March, 
1904)  ;  Mayo-Smith,  p.  128. 


34  Immigration  and  Emigration 

railways,  the  digging  of  canals  and  sewers,  the  construc- 
tion of  public  works  and  the  running  of  mills  and  fac- 
tories. To-day,  the  steam  shovel  and  excavator,  the 
concrete  mixing  machine,  and  the  construction  railway 
accomplish  with  a  few  men  more  than  could  be  done 
with  thousands  fifty  years  ago.  Electrical  coal-cutting 
machinery  is  producing  the  same  result  in  the  mines. 
Modern  appliances  have  reduced  the  number  of  opera- 
tives in  cotton  and  woolen  mills  to  one-third  of  those 
formerly  employed,  and  the  writer  is  informed  that,  in 
the  near  future,  less  than  one-tenth  of  the  former  num- 
ber of  employees  will  be  needed  for  the  same  amount  of 
work.  Machinery  has  chiefly  diminished  the  need  for 
skilled  labor.  A  relatively  unskilled  person  can  tend 
machines  to-day  which  do  the  work  formerly  done  by 
several  skilled  operatives. 

This  brings  us  to  still  another  factor  in  the  volume  of 
immigration,  at  least  of  the  higher  class.  It  has  been 
noted  that  where  there  is  an  over-supply  of  skilled  labor 
in  a  period  of  depression,  it  tends  to  fall  into  the  un- 
skilled class.  If  there  is  also  an  excess  of  the  unskilled, 
the  position  of  the  higher  artisan  is  hard  indeed.  Even 
within  the  skilled  class,  the  single  man,  and  the  man 
with  a  low  standard  of  living,  tends  to  supplant  the  mar- 
ried man  and  the  one  with  the  higher  standard  of  living. 
Whenever  there  is  a  large  immigration  to  the  United 
States  of  unskilled  labor,  skilled  labor  hesitates  to  enter 
into  a  possible  competition  with  it,  and  the  result  is  that 
foreign  skilled  labor  either  stays  at  home  or  emigrates  to 
some  other  country.  The  falling  off  of  skilled  immi- 
gration from  northwestern  Europe  in  recent  years  is  un- 
doubtedly due  to  this  cause.  Skilled  British  labor,  for 
example,  prefers  to  go  to  Canada,  Australia,  or  South 
Africa,  where  the  higher  steerage  rate  and  the  longer 


The  Causes  of  Immigration  35 

voyage  protect  it  against  the  competition  of  the  kinds  of 
workingmen  we  have  recently  received  in  large  numbers. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  diversion  of  German  emigration 
to  South  America.  A  corollary  from  this  principle  is 
that  freedom  of  immigration  does  not  necessarily  in- 
crease the  volume,  though  it  may  change  the  quality,  and, 
conversely,  a  careful  selection  of  immigration  may  stimu- 
late the  emigration  of  the  selected  classes. 

Another  element,  which  has  undoubtedly  had  a  potent 
effect  in  promoting  immigration  in  recent  years,  espe- 
cially from  Italy  and  other  countries  of  southern  Europe, 
has  been  the  fear  of  restrictive  legislation,  and  the  desire 
to  get  in  before  its  enactment.18  This  probably  accounts 
in  part  for  the  increase  in  the  immigration  of  1896  as 
compared  with  1895,  for  the  agitation  for  an  illiteracy 
test  reached  a  climax  in  the  former  year,  and,  except  for 
a  presidential  veto,  the  bill  would  have  been  law.  The 
same  cause  was  undoubtedly  at  work  in  1903-4;  for  the 
report  of  the  Italian  Commissioner-General  of  Emigra- 
tion for  that  year  contemplated  the  enactment  of  such  a 
law  and  recommended  further  public  education  in  order 
to  forestall  it.19 

Other  agencies  of  less  importance  in  promoting  immi- 
gration are  the  advertisements  in  Europe  of  American 
railway  companies  and  boards  of  agriculture  of  Ameri- 
can States,  and  the  missionary  efforts  of  the  Mormon 
Church.20 

18  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.   15,  pp.   167-169. 

19  Report   of   Vice    Consul   Byington   at   Naples   to   Dept.   of 
Commerce. 

20  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30,  p.  67. 


CHAPTER  III 
RACIAL   CONDITIONS   OF   IMMIGRATION1 

A.       HISTORY    OF    CHANGES    IN    RACIAL    CONDITIONS 

IT  would  be  hard  to  determine  whether  the  volume 
of  immigration  or  its  racial  composition  is  the  more  im- 
portant element  in  the  progress  of  our  population.  Each 
is  of  great  weight,  and  when  combined,  as  in  the  advent 
of  large  masses  of  a  particular  race,  they  cannot  fail 
to  leave  a  permanent  and  visible  mark  upon  our  people, 
if,  indeed,  they  do  not  result  in  a  radical  modification 
of  our  instincts  and  a  total  reconstruction  of  our 
institutions. 

The  first  considerable  addition  to  our  population  after 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  as  has  already  been 
shown,  was  due  to  the  hard  times  in  Ireland  and  to  polit- 
ical agitation  in  the  German  States,  causes  which  re- 
sulted in  a  very  large  emigration  from  those  countries 
in  the  years  from  1841  to  1860.  In  the  decade  1841  to 
1850  nearly  one-half  of  the  total  immigration  was  Irish 
and  one-quarter  was  German.  Of  the  total  immigration 
in  the  following  decade,  one-third  was  likewise  Irish  and 
more  than  one-third  was  German. 

However  much  social  prejudice  there  may  have  been 

1  See  John  R.  Commons,  "  Colonial  Race  Elements,"  in  Chau- 
tauqnan,  vol.  38,  pp.  118-125  (Oct.  1903);  "Immigration  During 
the  Nineteenth  Century,"  ibid.,  pp.  433-443  (Jan.  1904) ;  Re- 
port  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  259-277;  vol. 
19,  pp.  958-962. 

36 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration        37 

against  the  Irish  and  German  immigrants  of  the  forties 
and  fifties,  and  although  even  that  immigration  tended,  to 
diminish  the  native  stock,  it  remains  true  that,  before 
1870,  immigration  was  chiefly  of  races  kindred  in  habits, 
institutions  and  traditions  to  the  original  colonists.2 
Upon  this  point  Mr.  Lodge  said,  in  addressing  the  Sen- 
ate March  16,  1896: 

"It  will  be  observed  that,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Huguenot  French,  who  formed  but  a  small  percentage 
of  the  total  population,  the  people  of  the  thirteen  colonies 
were  all  of  the  same  original  race  stocks.  The  Dutch, 
the  Swedes,  and  the  Germans,  were  simply  blended  with 
the  English-speaking  people,  who  like  them  were  de- 
scended from  the  Germanic  tribes  whom  Caesar  fought 
and  Tacitus  described.  During  the  present  century, 
down  to  1875,  there  have  been  three  large  migrations  to 
this  country  in  addition  to  the  always  steady  stream 
from  Great  Britain ;  one  came  from  Ireland  about  the 
middle  of  the  century,  and  somewhat  later  one  from 
Germany,  and  one  from  Scandinavia,  in  which  is  in- 
cluded Sweden,  Denmark  and  Norway.  The  Irish, 
although  of  a  different  race  stock  originally,  have  been 
closely  associated  with  the  English-speaking  people  for 
nearly  a  thousand  years.  They  speak  the  same  language, 
and  during  that  long  period  the  two  races  have  lived 
side  by  side  and  to  some  extent  have  intermarried.  The 
Germans  and  the  Scandinavians  are  again  people  of  the 
same  race  stock  as  the  English  who  built  up  the  colonies. 
During  this  century  then,  down  to  1875,  as  in  the  two 
which  preceded  it,  there  had  been  scarcely  any  immigra- 
tion to  this  country  except  from  kindred  or  allied  races, 
and  no  other  which  was  sufficiently  numerous  to  have 
produced  any  effect  on  the  national  characteristics,  or 
to  be  taken  into  account  here." 

Thus  if  a  line  were  drawn  from  north  to  south  across 
2  Cf.  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.   15,  pp.  268- 

275 ;  vol.  19,  PP.  958-962. 


38  Immigration  and  Emigration 

Europe  it  would  be  found  that  the  countries  of  western 
Europe,  that  is  to  say  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  France, 
Germany  and  Scandinavia,  furnished  more  than  three- 
fourths  of  the  total  immigration  from  all  countries  be- 
fore 1880.  Eastern  Europe,  including  Austria-Hungary, 
Italy,  Poland,  and  Russia,  furnished  less  than  one  per 
cent. 

How  marked  the  change  in  nationality  has  been,  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1869  not  one  per  cent,  of  the 
total  immigration  came  from  Austria-Hungary,  Italy, 
Poland  and  Russia ;  in  1902  the  percentage  was  over  70. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  1869  nearly  three-quarters  of  the 
total  immigration  came  from  the  United  Kingdom, 
France,  Germany  and  Scandinavia.3  In  1902  only  one- 
fifth  was  from  those  countries.  Or,  to  put  it  in  another 
way;  in  1869  the  immigrants  from  Austria-Hungary, 
Italy,  Poland  and  Russia  were  about  one-hundredth 
of  the  number  from  the  United  Kingdom,  France,  Ger- 
many and  Scandinavia;  in  1880,  about  one-tenth;  in  1894 
nearly  equal  to  it;  in  1902  three  and  one-half  times  as 
great.  In  1903,  the  largest  element  in  immigration  was 
the  South  Italian,  with  196,117  souls,  and  the  next 
largest  was  the  Polish,  with  82,343.  Considering  the 
immigration  of  1904  by  the  great  racial  divisions  we 
have  the  following  result,  in  striking  contrast  to  the 
days  when  immigration  was  almost  entirely  Teutonic 
and  Keltic: 

8  See  Kendric  C.  Babcock,  "  The  Scandinavians  in  the  North- 
west," in  Forum,  vol.  14,  pp.  103-109  (Sept.  1892). 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration        39 

IMMIGRATION  BY  RACIAL  DIVISIONS,  1904 

Per  cent, 
of  Total 
Number  Immigration 

Slavic 272,396  33.5 

Teutonic 195,287  24.0 

Iberic 186,607  22.9 

Keltic 98,635  12.1 

Mongolic 20,616  2.5 

All  others 39,329  4-8 

Another  way  of  looking  at  the  subject  is  by  compar- 
ing the  total  immigration  of  certain  nationalities  for  the 
period  1821  to  1902  with  that  for  the  year  I9O3-4 

i8zi  to  1901  190} 

Country  Number         Per  cent.       Number       Per  cent. 

Austria-Hungary....  1,316,914  6.5  206,011  24.0 

England,    Wales 2.739,937  13.4  26,219  3.0 

Germany 5,008,005  24.9  40,086  4.7 

Ireland 3,944,269  19.3  35-300  4.1 

Italy 1,358,597  6.7  230,622  26.9 

Norway,    Sweden...  1,334,931  6.6  70,489  8.2 

Russia,   Poland 1,106,362  5.4  136,093  15.9 

British  N.  America.  1,050,682  5.1 

The  foregoing  table  shows  not  only  the  nations  which 
have  added  chiefly  to  our  population  in  the  past,  and 
which  are  adding  to-day,  but  how  the  percentage  of  each 
has  varied  in  the  period  before  1903  compared  with  1903. 
If  the  same  proportions  had  obtained  in  the  earlier  period 
as  during  the  later  how  different  might  our  country  and 
its  institutions  now  be! 

Further  light  on  racial  conditions  is  furnished  ( I )  by  a 
comparison  of  the  number  of  the  foreign-born  in  this 
country  at  the  time  of  the  last  two  censuses,  and  (2) 
their  relative  increase  during  the  decade-  The  facts  are 
shown  in  the  following  tables : 

4  Bureau  of  Statistics,  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30,  p. 
viii  (1904). 


4O  Immigration  and  Emigration 

(i)     FOREIGN-BORN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES,  1890  AND  1900,  BY 

BIRTHPLACES.5 

1890 


Number 

North  and  South  America  1,088,245 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  3,122,911 

Germany    2,784,894 

Scandinavian    nations  .  .  .      933,249 

Slav  nations 510,625 

Italy 182,580 

Asiatic  nations 1 13,383 

All  others 513,660 


Per 

cent. 

11.76 
3376 
30.11 
10.09 

5-52 
1.98 
1.23 

5-55 


1900 

Per 

Number 

cent. 

1,318,913 

12.73 

2,788,304 

26.92 

2,666,990 

25-75 

1,064,309 

10.28 

I,I73,2IO 

11-33 

484,207 

4-^7 

120,862 

1.17 

739,849 

7-15 

TOTAL 9,249,547      100.00      10,356,644      100.00 


(2)     INCREASE  OF  THE  FOREIGN-BORN,  BY  BIRTHPLACES,  1890  TO 


Number 

North  and  South  America 230,668 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland *334,6o7 

Germany  .  .  .  *i  17,904 

Scandinavian  nations 131,060 

Slav  nations 662,585 

Italy 301,627 

Asiatic  nations 7,479 

All   others 226,189 


Per  cent,  of 

Per  cent,  of        aggregate 
number  increase  o{ 

found  foreign- 


)n  1890 

21.2 

*I0.7 

14.0 
129.8 
165.2 

6.6 

44.0 


born 
20.8 
*30.2 

*io.6 
1 1.8 
59-8 
27.2 
0.7 
20.4 


Total  increase,  excluding  United 

Kingdom  and  Germany 1,559,608 

Decrease,    United   Kingdom    and 

Germany 452,511 


Net    increase 1,107,097 


'Decrease. 

5  So  far  as  a  classification  of  nationalities  has  been  attempted, 
that  of  the  census  of  1890  has  been  followed.  The  Scandinavian 
nations  include  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark ;  the  Slav  na- 
tions, Russia,  Hungary,  Bohemia,  Poland,  and  Finland.  Natives 
of  Finland  are  returned  separately  in  the  census  of  1900,  but 
seem  to  have  been  included  among  natives  of  Russia  in  that  of 
1890. 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration       41 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  natives  of  Slavic  countries  in- 
creased 130  per  cent.,  those  of  Italy  165  per  cent.,  and 
those  of  Scandinavian  countries  14  per  cent.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  natives  of  Germany  diminished  4  per 
cent.,  and  those  of  the  United  Kingdom  over  10  per 
cent.  The  increase  of  Italians  amounted  to  more  than 
a  quarter  of  the  aggregate  increase  of  the  foreign-born, 
and  the  increase  of  natives  of  Slavic  countries  amounted 
to  60  per  cent,  of  the  aggregate.  Meantime  there  was  a 
decrease  of  natives  of  Germany  to  the  extent  of  10  per 
cent.,  and  a  decrease  of  natives  of  the  United  Kingdom 
to  the  extent  of  30  per  cent. 

B.    CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  VARIOUS  RACES 

The  limits  of  the  present  volume  forbid  anything  more 
than  a  cursory  survey  of  the  chief  characteristics  of 
the  most  important  races  forming  our  immigration.  Im- 
migrants of  the  same  race  come  to  us  from  such  different 
surroundings,  and  under  such  varying  conditions  that 
the  task  of  generalization  is  often  difficult ;  and  for  de- 
tails the  reader  must  consult  special  studies  made  in  the 
homes-  of  the  various  nationalities  in  this  country.8 

Armenians.  The  Armenians,  who  are  rather  recent 
arrivals,  began  to  come  both  because  of  Turkish  perse- 
cution and  of  new  steamship  communication  with  the 
Levant.  Missionaries  and  sympathizers  in  the  United 

8  See  generally  W.  Evans-Gordon,  The  Alien  Immigrant; 
Report  of  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  1903,  pp. 
1-130,  "Race  in  Industry";  F.  A.  Bushee,  "Ethnic  Factors  in  the 
Population  of  Boston,"  in  Publications  of  the  American  Eco- 
nomic Associations,  Third  Series,  vol.  4,  No.  2  (May,  1903)  ; 
Peter  Roberts,  Anthracite  Coal  Communities;  Report  of  the 
Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15  (see  index)  ;  Dr.  Allan  Mc- 
Laughlin,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  63,  p.  25  (May,  1903)  ; 


42  Immigration  and  Emigration 

States  have  also  done  much  to  encourage  their  immigra- 
tion. The  total  number  arriving  in  1904  was  1745, 
most  of  whom  were  destined  to  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island  and  New  York.  A  considerable  part  were  shoe- 
makers, tailors,  bakers  and  weavers,  and  the  balance 
chiefly  laborers  and  servants.  They  showed  about 
twenty-three  dollars  per  capita,  but  only  one-tenth 
brought  fifty  dollars  or  more.  Of  those  over  four- 
teen years  of  age,  21.9  per  cent,  were  illiterate. 

Some  of  the  Armenian  merchants  are  fairly  intelli- 
gent and  are  not  undesirable  immigrants.  On  the  other 
hand,  many  of  the  lower  class  are  extremely  objection- 
able. Their  standards  of  living  and  of  morals  are  low, 
and  they  tend  to  form,  small  colonies  in  manufacturing 
centres.  Some  take  up  the  occupations  of  cigarette  mak- 
ing and  peddling.  On  the  whole  they  are  not  desirable 
immigrants. 

Canadians.  Immigration  from  Canada  consists  of 
two  very  different  classes :  the  British  element,  composed 
of  immigrants  from  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and 
their  descendants ;  and  the  French  element.  No  reliable 
statistics  are  at  hand  as  to  the  numbers  or  conditions  of 
either  class.  The  British  Canadians  are  in  many  re- 
spects similar  to  native  Americans,  but  they  have  fewer 
defectives  and  fewer  criminals  in  serious  crimes.  Their 
skill  is  not  as  great  as  that  of  the  English  and  Scotch, 
and  the  perpetual  migration  which  goes  on  back  and 

vol.  65,  pp.  341-349  (Aug.  1904) ;  vol.  65,  pp.  432-442  (Sept.  1004) ; 
Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30  (1904)  ;  John  R.  Commons, 
"  Racial  Composition  of  the  American  People,"  in  Chautauquan, 
vols.  38  and  39  (Sept.  1903  to  May,  1904);  A.  H.  Hyde,  "The 
Foreign  Element  in  American  Civilization,"  in  Forum,  vol.  52, 
PP-  387-399  (Jan.  1898)  ;  Seventh  Special  Report  of  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Labor,  (1894)  ;  W.  Z.  Ripley,  Races  of 
Europe. 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration       43 

forth  from  Canada  tends  to  make  them  less  reliable  and 
steady  in  their  work.  The  French  Canadian  element 
is  entirely  different  both  from  the  British  Canadian  and 
from  the  modern  French.  The  general  intelligence  of 
these  people  is  much  less  than  of  the  British  Canadians 
and  they  perform  a  lower  grade  both  of  skilled  and  un- 
skilled labor.  The  birth  rate  is  very  high  among  them ; 
they  seem  likely  to  increase  as  fast  as  or  faster  than 
any  other  element  of  our  population.  Their  standard 
of  living  is  very  low,  and,  as  they  often  regard  their 
stay  in  the  United  States  as  temporary,  they  do  not  at- 
tempt to  improve  it.  On  account  of  their  willingness  to 
underbid  other  labor  they  are  very  unpopular  in  New 
England,  the  section  in  which  they  are  chiefly  employed. 
Whole  families  work  in  the  mills  and  other  manufactur- 
ing establishments.  In  the  absence  of  factory  legisla- 
tion, the  tendency  of  the  race  is  to  work  its  young 
children  and  to  labor  very  long  hours.  Many  of  the 
French  Canadians  are  also  employed  in  lumbering,  not 
only  in  New  England  but  in  Michigan  and  the  other 
border  States ;  and,  on  the  whole,  they  make  excellent 
laborers  in  this  industry.  They  do  not,  however,  by  any 
means  take  the  place  in  the  social  life  of  the  community 
of  those  whom  they  drive  out.  They  fail  to  educate  their 
children  and  they  lower  the  average  of  intelligence  and 
morality. 

English.  In  1904  we  received  from  England  41,479 
immigrants.  Of  the  professional  division,  the  largest 
classes  were  actors  and  engineers.  Among  the  skilled 
division,  clerks,  sailors,  engineers  and  miners  predomi- 
nated, and  by  far  the  largest  of  any  of  the  classes  was 
that  of  domestic  servants.  The  average  money  shown 
was  sixty-five  dollars  per  capita;  the  illiteracy  of  those 
over  fourteen  years  of  age  was  1.3  per  cent.  The  immi- 


44  Immigration  and  Emigration 

grants  were  destined  chiefly  for  New  York,  Massachu- 
setts, Pennsylvania  and  California,  the  balance  being  well 
distributed  among  the  other  States. 

English  immigrants  come  from  two  very  different 
classes.  The  better  is  well  educated,  brings  consider- 
able money,  and  makes  a  valuable  addition  to  our  popu- 
lation. Many  of  this  class  are  skilled  workingmen  or 
professional  and  commercial  men.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  much  immigration  of  the  lowest  class,  includ- 
ing numerous  defectives  and  delinquents  who  find  it  to 
their  advantage  to  leave  their  native  towns.  Dr.  Bushee 
remarks  that  the  English  are  perhaps  the  least  readily 
assimilated  of  any  of  the  English-speaking  nationalities, 
because  though  they  mix  readily  with  the  native  popula- 
tion they  hold  tenaciously  to  their  national  character- 
istics.9 Emigration  from  England  has  fallen  off  in  re- 
cent years;  partly  on  account  of  trade  conditions,  and 
partly  because  the  stream  is  going  elsewhere.  Except 
where  immigrants  have  friends  or  relatives  in  the  United 
States  they  are  likely  to  go  to  Canada,  both  because  the 
advantages  of  that  country  are  being  continually  adver- 
tised and  because  of  the  Imperialistic  sentiment.  Never- 
theless in  certain  sections  of  England,  such  as  Corn- 
wall, the  decline  of  the  native  industries  is  driving  many 
persons  to  the  United  States.  The  English  working- 
man,  as  a  rule,  has  not  as  high  a  standard  of  sobriety  or 
economy  as  the  American,  but  he  tends  in  a  short  time 
to  conform  to  the  latter's  standard.  Owing  to  the  greater 
cheapness  and  ease  of  transportation  it  is  said  that  the 
class  of  inferior  immigrants  tends  to  increase. 

Finns.     Finnish  immigration,  owing  to  economic  and 

9  "  Ethnic  Factors  in  the  Population  of  Boston,"  in  Publications 
of  the  American  Economic  Association,  Third  Series,  vol.  4,  No. 
2,  p.  153  (May,  1903). 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration        45 

political  troubles  at  home,  has  increased  during  the  last 
two  years.  In  1904,  it  amounted  to  10,157  souls.  The 
principal  destinations  of  these  immigrants  were  Michi- 
gan, New  York  and  Massachusetts.  They  were  prac- 
tically all  unskilled,  though  there  was  a  sprinkling  of 
artisans  among  them.  They  showed  about  twenty  dol- 
lars per  capita,  and  the  illiteracy  of  those  over  fourteen 
years  of  age  was  2.7  per  cent. 

Most  of  the  Finns  go  to  the  country  districts  and  espe- 
cially to  the  Northwest.  Colonies,  however,  are  forming 
to  some  extent  in  the  smaller  cities  where  quarrying  and 
similar  kinds  of  labor  are  engaged  in.  The  farm 
laborers  are  generally  intelligent  and  well-trained,  and 
find  employment  easily,  especially  as  they  seldom  leave 
home  without  having  friends  here  to  help  them  to  find 
work.  They  are  Protestant  in  religion. 

Immigration  from  Finland  may  be  said  to  be  in  a 
normal  condition  as  contrasted  with  the  countries  where 
the  solicitation  of  the  steamship  companies  has  gathered 
all  sorts  of  natives  for  transportation  to  the  United 
States. 

French.10  Immigration  from  France,  which  has  never 
been  very  large,  reached  a  low  point  in  1899.  Since 
then,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  work  in  Europe, 
it  has  risen  again  to  its  normal  size.  The  total  in  1904 
was  n,557  immigrants,  whose  destinations  were  very 
generally  distributed.  Next  to  New  York  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, California  appeared  to  be  the  favorite  State. 
Among  them  were  a  considerable  number  of  clergymen, 
artists,  engineers  and  teachers,  also  of  dressmakers, 
miners  and  servants.  They  showed  an  average  of  about 
seventy  dollars  per  capita,  and  more  than  one-half  of 
those  who  brought  money  exhibited  over  fifty  dollars. 

10  See  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30,  pp.  2036. 


46  Immigration  and  Emigration 

The  illiteracy  of  those  over  fourteen  years  of  age  was 
3.2  per  cent. 

The  French  immigrants  are  noted  for  their  intelli- 
gence, education  and  thrift,  and  are  in  every  way 
desirable  additions  to  the  population.  The  French  gov- 
ernment has  been  making  great  efforts  to  divert  emigra- 
tion to  the  colonies,  especially  to  Algeria  and  Tunis. 
The  peasantry  has  come  to  the  United  States  chiefly  by 
way  of  Canada.  The  present  French  emigrants,  like  the 
early  Huguenot  settlers,  are  chiefly  of  the  middle  and 
upper  classes. 

Germans.11  Germans  settled  in  Pennsylvania  as  early 
as  1682,  in  what  is  now  called  Germantown,  and  from 
that  time  to  the  present  the  stream  of  German  immigra- 
tion has  been  constant.  In  1904  the  total  was  74,790 
persons,  the  third  largest  element  in  the  whole  immi- 
gration of  that  year.  The  principal  destinations  were 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Missouri,  Wisconsin 
and  New  Jersey.  Of  the  professional  division,  the  prin- 
cipal classes  were  teachers,  musicians  and  engineers. 
Among  skilled  laborers,  bakers,  clerks,  carpenters,  miners 
and  tailors  were  the  most  numerous.  The  largest  class 
of  German  emigrants  in  1902,  as  regards  occupation, 
was  that  engaged  in  farming  and  forestry ;  the  next 
largest  was  engaged  in  mechanical  and  building  trades, 
with  domestic  service,  commerce,  and  insurance  next 
in  order.12  The  average  money  shown  in  1904  was 
forty-eight  dollars ;  the  illiteracy  of  immigrants  over 
fourteen  years  of  age  was  4.8  per  cent. 

The  German  immigrants  are  thrifty  and  industrious. 
Besides  helping  to  settle  Pennsylvania  and  the  Middle 

11  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.   15,  pp.  326-461 ; 
E.  A.  Steiner,  in  Outlook,  vol.  73,  pp.  260-264   (Jan.  31,  1903). 

12  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30,  p.  39  (1904). 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration       47 

States,  they  have  taken  the  lead  in  establishing  numerous 
industries.  Curiously  enough,  although  the  Germans 
were  the  first  prohibitionists  in  this  country,  the  modern 
Germans  have  largely  developed  the  brewing  industry. 
They  have  tended  to  congregate  largely  in  certain  sec- 
tions— sixty  per  cent  of  the  population  of  Milwaukee 
is  German.  They  have  a  strong  love  of  their  native 
country,  and  keep  alive  their  native  language  and  habits 
by  political,  musical,  and  social  organizations.  Many 
magazines  and  newspapers  are  published  in  German,  but, 
as  a  rule,  the  traditions  of  the  German  intellectual  life 
have  not  been  maintained. 

In  general,  the  Germans  are  of  good  physique  and  en- 
courage athletic  sports  and  physical  training  among  their 
children.  They  are,  also,  good-natured  and  given  to 
enjoying  life.  Perhaps  their  chief  danger  in  this  country 
is  from  the  money-making  spirit,  and  their  success  in  all 
mechanical  pursuits  makes  this  materialism  especially 
attractive  to  them.  The  proverbial  neatness  of  German 
homes  is  a  pleasant  contrast  to  those  of  some  other  na- 
tionalities. A  few  of  the  poorer  Germans  drift  from 
the  country  districts  to  the  large  cities,  where  they  take 
up  rag  picking  and  similar  occupations.  From  their 
very  thrift,  they  frequent  the  dirtiest  and  most  objec- 
tionable parts  of  the  city  slums,  or  else  contribute  to 
the  "  shanty  "  or  squatter  population  found,  for  example, 
in  the  outlying  districts  of  New  York.13 

German  immigrants  bring  with  them  a  fair  amount  of 
money,  and,  more  important,  they  come  with  the  inten- 
tion of  settling  permanently  in  the  country.  As  a  rule 
they  are  much  freer  from  intemperance  than  the  British ; 
and,  indeed,  the  defective  and  delinquent  classes  among 
them  are  exceedingly  small.  In  spite  of  the  love  for  their 
13  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  p.  461. 


48  Immigration  and  Emigration 

native  language  and  customs,  they  assimilate  rapidly,  as 
is  shown  by  their  tendency  to  intermarry  with  other 
races,  and  to  enter  politics.  The  German  vote  in  New 
York  City  already  tends  to  supplant  the  Irish,  and  most 
of  the  German  voters  are  intelligent  and  patriotic.  The 
physical  vigor  and  personal  cleanliness  for  which  the 
male  immigrants  are  noted  may  be  attributed  in  part- 
to  the  military  service  which  they  are  commonly  obliged 
to  perform  before  emigrating.  A  considerable  propor- 
tion of  the  female  immigrants  go  into  domestic  service. 

Greeks.  Greek  immigration,  like  other  immigration 
from  the  Levant,  has  recently  increased.  In  1904  it 
amounted  to  12,625  persons.  Most  of  these  were  going 
to  New  York,  Illinois,  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania. 
The  proportion  of  professional  persons  was  surprisingly 
small.  Among  the  skilled,  the  principal  classes  were  ma- 
chinists, blacksmiths,  bakers,  shoemakers,  tailors  and 
clerks ;  but  by  far  the  greater  part  were  unskilled 
laborers.  The  per  capita  money  shown  was  about 
eighteen  dollars,  and  the  illiteracy  of  those  over  fourteen 
years  was  23.6  per  cent. 

Many  of  the  Greeks,  especially  the  boys  and  young 
men,  come  under  contract  to  work  for  padroni  in  the 
peddling  and  boot-blacking  trades.  They  are  usually 
well  coached  and  in  that  way  evade  the  contract  labor 
acts.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  they  emigrate  practically 
under  contract  they  tend  tp  congregate  in  certain  large 
cities  and  to  live  in  very  unhealthy  surroundings.  The 
percentage  of  trachoma  and  other  contagious  diseases 
among  them  is  high;  many  also  are  of  poor  physique. 
During  the  year  1903,  one  Greek  out  of  every  thirty 
landed  was  sent  back  as  liable  to  become  a  public  charge. 
Not  a  few  of  the  immigrants  are  from  rural  districts  and 
were,  in  their  own  country,  agriculturists  and  shep- 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration       49 

herds.  They  are  very  patriotic,  and,  in  most  cases,  come 
to  this  country  with  the  intention  of  returning;  for  that 
reason  the  immigrants  are  chiefly  men,  who  leave  their 
women  behind  to  care  for  the  farms  and  flocks  until 
their  return. 

Hebrews.14  It  is  estimated  that  there  are  approxi- 
mately 19,000,000  Jews  in  the  world.  Of  these  Europe 
contains  10,000,000  and  the  United  States  upwards  of 
1,100,000.  Of  those  in  Europe,  Russia  has  5,000,000; 
Austria-Hungary,  nearly  2,000,000;  Germany,  550,000; 
Great  Britain,  200,000;  Turkey  and  the  Balkan 
States  500,000.  More  than  one-half  of  the  1,100,000 
Jews  in  the  United  States  live  within  the  confines  of 
Greater  New  York. 

In  1904,  of  the  106,236  Hebrews  coming  to  this  coun- 
try. 77,500  were  Russian,  20,000  Austro-Hungarian, 
6500  Roumanian,  817  British,  and  669  German.  By  far 
the  greater  portion  were  destined  for  New  York,  Massa- 
chusetts, Illinois,  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey.  Among 
the  professional  classes  the  most  numerous  were  musi- 
cians and  teachers,  though  only  about  one  per  cent,  of 
the  total  immigration  was  engaged  in  professional  occu- 
pations. Of  the  skilled  classes,  the  most  numerous  were 
tailors,  bakers,  carpenters,  clerks,  locksmiths  and 

14  W.  Evans-Gordon's  The  Alien  Immigrant,  gives  the  personal 
observations  of  a  member  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  Alien 
Immigration  in  the  Jewish  settlements  in  Russia,  Austria  and 
other  European  countries;  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission, 
vol.  15,  pp.  348,  369,  465-492,  510,  517;  Dr.  Allan  McLaughlin, 
in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  65,  pp.  432-438  (Sept.  1904)  ; 
K.  H.  Claghorn,  in  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science,  vol.  24,  pp.  196  ff.  (July,  1904)  ;  Roger 
Mitchell,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  52,  pp.  334-343  (Feb. 
1903)  ;  Dr.  Richard  Gottheil,  in  World's  Work,  pp.  3689-3693 
(July,  1903). 


$o  Immigration  and  Emigration 

painters.  There  was  a  total  of  45,109  skilled  as  against 
21,799  "  miscellaneous,"  i.e.,  laborers,  servants  and  the 
like.  Notwithstanding  that  some  Hebrews  bring  com- 
paratively large  sums,  the  average  money  shown  was 
extremely  small — only  fifteen  dollars  per  capita.  The 
illiteracy  of  those  over  fourteen  years  of  age  was  23.3 
per  cent.  The  fact  that  practically  no  German  Jews  are 
now  coming  to  us  seems  due  to  the  greater  civil  liberty 
which  they  enjoy  as  compared  with  their  co-religionists 
in  other  countries.  Although  the  Jews  were  originally 
an  agricultural  people,  on  reaching  America  the  vast 
majority  settle  in  large  cities, — where  previous  immi- 
grants of  their  race  are  already  located, — and  take  up 
small  manufacturing  under  the  sweat-shop  system. 

The  poor  physique  of  Hebrew  immigrants  bars  them 
from  farming  and  other  pursuits  involving  hard  manual 
labor.  They  therefore  take  up  tailoring,  harness- 
making  and  the  like,  and  have,  till  recently,  practically 
controlled  the  clothing  trade  in  New  York  City.  Owing 
to  the  great  congestion  in  the  East  Side  of  New  York 
many  of  the  Hebrews  are  unable  to  succeed  in  the  strug- 
gle for  economic  independence.  Forty-five  per  cent,  of 
the  applicants  for  relief  at  the  Hebrew  Charities  in  1901 
had  been  in  the  country  five  years,  and  forty  per  cent, 
less  than  one  year.  The  manager  of  the  United  Hebrew 
Charities  also  states  15  that  during  that  year  from  75,000 
to  100,000  members  of  the  New  York  Jewish  commu- 
nity were  unable  to  supply  themselves  with  the  necessaries 
of  life.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  latter  number  is  about 
one-eleventh  of  all  the  Hebrews  in  the  United  States. 

It  is  said  that  whenever  the  Jew  gets  away  from  the 
Ghetto  he  succeeds,  and  great  efforts  are  being  made 

15  Twenty-seventh  Annual  Report  of  the  United  Hebrew  Chari- 
ties, (1901). 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration        51 

to  distribute  the  recent  immigration  to  agricultural 
regions.16  How  far  such  attempts  will  be  successful  on 
a  scale  large  enough  to  do  any  good  remains  to  be  seen. 
The  passage  of  the  British  Aliens  Bill  is  likely  to  result 
in  our  receiving  a  still  worse  class  of  Jewish  immigrants, 
described  by  Arnold  White  as  "  incurable  paupers."  The 
Jews  we  have  received  hitherto  have  been,  in  general, 
industrious,  of  good  mental  ability,  but  liable  to  disease, 
especially  tuberculosis,  in  the  crowded  life  of  our  city 
slums.  The  longevity  of  the  race  and  its  freedom  from 
acute  disease,  apart  from  this  factor  of  city  life,  has 
often  been  noted ;  so,  also,  is  the  freedom  of  the  race  from 
drunkenness  and  crimes  of  violence.  The  Jews  have  a 
keen  personal  ambition,  and  such  lawbreaking  as  they 
do  is  usually  in  the  breach  of  sanitary  regulations  or  in 
trying  to  gain  some  monetary  advantage  by  craft  and 
deceit.  Although  the  history  of  many  of  these  immi- 
grants in  Europe  is  something  for  which  they  are  not 
responsible,  it  does  not  augur  well  for  their  future  as 
American  citizens.  This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
authorities  of  the  Jewish  settlements  in  South  America 
cause  their  recruits  to  be  "  filtered  "  several  times  before 
accepting  them.17  The  physical  degeneration  of  the  Jew 
in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  has  been  accompanied  to 
some  extent  by  a  moral  and  political  degeneration.  The 
report  of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities  above  referred 
to  states  that  "  the  vice  and  crime,  the  irreligious- 
ness,  lack  of  self-restraint,  indifference  to  social 
conventions,  indulgence  in  the  most  degraded  and 
perverted  appetites  are  growing  daily  more  pronounced 
and  more  offensive." 

™  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.   15,  pp.  510-517; 
Report  of  the  Industrial  Removal  Office,  1904. 

17  W.  Evans-Gordon,  in  World's  Work,  p.  3281   (April,  1903), 


52  Immigration  and  Emigration 

Of  course,  this  is  not  true  of  such  Hebrews  as  have 
obtained  a  foothold  and  have  achieved  economic  inde- 
pendence. The  latter  are  generous,  and  do  their  best  to 
help  their  co-religionists,  although  there  is  some  friction 
between  the  German  and  the  Russian  Jews.18  As  the 
Hebrew  death  rate  is  low,  and  the  birth  rate  high,  the 
race  is  likely  to  multiply.  The  family  as  an  institution 
has  a  strong  hold  upon  them,  and  their  desire  for  race 
and  religious  purity  tends  to  keep  them  from  intermar- 
riage with  other  races,  so  that  assimilation  is  often  a 
mingling  rather  than  a  fusion. 

Irish.19  Immigration  from  Ireland,  like  that  from 
other  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom,  has  shown  a  great 
falling  off  in  recent  years — the  arrivals  formerly  ranging 
from  50,000  to  70,000  a  year.  From  1821  to  1902  Ire- 
land sent  us  almost  four  million  immigrants,  a  number 
surpassed  only  by  Germany.  There  were,  moreover,  in 
1900,  nearly  five  million  persons  in  the  United  States  hav- 
ing one  or  both  parents  Irish,  or  about  half  a  million 
more  than  the  population  of  Ireland  itself  in  1901.  With 
some  truth,  therefore,  it  may  be  said  that  the  Irish  race 
has  been  literally  transplanted  to  the  United  States. 

In  1904,  the  total  Irish  immigration  amounted  to  37,- 
076,  and  of  these  20,469  were  females.20  The  principal 
destinations  of  the  immigrants  were  New  York,  Massa- 
chusetts, Pennsylvania,  Illinois  and  Connecticut.  The 
great  majority  were  unskilled  laborers  and  servants.  The 
average  money  shown  was  twenty-nine  dollars,  and  the 

18  Ezra    S.    Brudno,    in    World's    Work,  pp.    4556-7    (March, 
1904). 

19  F.  A.  Bushee,  "  Ethnic  Factors  in  the  Population  of  Boston," 
in  Publications   of   the   American   Economic  Association,  Third 
Series,  vol.  4,  No.  2,  pp.  149-152  (May,  1903). 

20  Ireland  is  the  only  country   from  which   female   emigrants 
outnumber  the  males. 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration       53 

illiteracy  of  those  over  fourteen  years  of  age  was  3.4  per 
cent.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Germans,  the  Scandinavians 
and  the  Canadians,  many  of  the  women  enter  domestic 
service. 

The  Irish,  like  several  other  nationalities  among  our 
immigrants,  present  the  spectacle  of  an  agricultural  and 
rural  people  suddenly  transferred  to  city  life.  As  a 
whole  they  have  been  essentially  mediocre,  for  although 
many  have  attained  to  positions  of  moderate  dignity  and 
importance — especially  in  politics,  for  which  this  race 
has  a  genius — few  have  secured  pre-eminence  in  pro- 
fessional, scientific  or  social  pursuits.  So,  although 
many  have  interested  themselves  in  athletic  matters,  as 
a  race  they  have  no  great  physical  vitality,  and  their 
death  rate  is  very  high.  The  number  of  defectives 
among  them  is  large,  and  their  record  for  drunkenness 
and  pauperism  is  bad. 

The  race  is  conventional  in  temper  rather  than  indi- 
vidualistic, and  readily  enters  into  existing  institutions. 
Especially  fond  of  political  life,  it  attempts  to  influence 
other  races  politically,  and  to  that  extent  encourages  as- 
similation. It  is  also  noted  for  its  cheerful  temperament, 
and  genial,  easy-going  disposition,  which,  though  it 
often  leads  to  intemperance,  adds  to  the  pleasure  of  a 
community.  The  monopoly  which  the  earlier  Irish  im- 
migrants had  of  the  heavier  forms  of  manual  labor 
is  giving  way  before  the  inroads  of  Italians  and  French 
Canadians,  and  the  Irish  themselves  are  beginning  to  feel 
social  aspirations  and  to  limit  their  birth-rate  in  order  to 
secure  social  advantages.  Of  the  various  nationalities 
the  Irish  show  the  smallest  rate  of  natural  increase,21 

21  F.  A.  Bushee,  "  Ethnic  Factors  in  the  Population  of  Boston," 
in  Publications  of  the  American  Economic  Association,  Third 
Series,  vol.  4,  No.  2,  p.  51. 


54  Immigration  and  Emigration 

and  to  some  extent  they  may  be  supplanted  by  more 
fertile  races. 

Italians.22  From  1821  to  1903  Italian  immigration  to 
the  United  States  amounted  to  nearly  1,600,000  persons; 
and  in  1903  was  about  27  per  cent,  of  the  total  immigra- 
tion of  that  year.  The  term  "  Italian  "  is,  in  a  sense, 
very  misleading,  for  the  nation  is  composed  of  many 
races  of  different  origins.  In  general,  however,  there  is 
a  broad  distinction  between  the  Keltic  elements  inhabit- 
ing northern  Italy,  and  the  Iberic  elements  living  in  the 
southern  part.  Under  the  classification  adopted  by  the 
Immigration  Bureau,  "  Northern  Italy,"  includes  Tus- 
cany, Emilia,  Liguria,  Venice  and  Lombardy;  and 
"  Southern  Italy "  the  other  States.  The  northern 
Italians  come  of  much  better  stock,  and  are  more  enter- 
prising, thrifty  and  intelligent  than  their  southern  fellow- 
countrymen. 

The  comparative  characteristics  of  the  two  groups  in 
the  immigration  of  1904  are  shown  by  the  following 
table : 

Northern  Southern 

Italian  Italian 

Total    immigration 36,699  159,329 

Average  money  shown  in  dollars           28  13 
Per  cent,    of   illiteracy  of  those 

over  14  years 12.6  54.2 

The  Southern  Italians  have  constituted  the  largest 
single  element  in  the  immigration  of  recent  years;  and, 

22  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30,  pp.  78-97  (1904);  Re- 
port of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  474,  475,  499- 
506;  Dr.  Allan  McLaughlin,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  65, 
pp.  341-349  (Aug.  1904)  ;  K.  H.  Claghorn,  in  Annals  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  vol.  24,  pp. 
185-206  (July,  1904)  ;  "  The  Italians  in  Chicago,"  Special  Re- 
port of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor;  Eliot  Lord, 
John  J.  D.  Trenor,  and  Samuel  J.  Barrows,  The  Italian  in  Amer- 
ica (1905). 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration        55 

while  immigration  from  northern  Italy  has  diminished, 
they  have  rapidly  increased.  In  1904  about  22  per  cent, 
of  the  immigrants  from  each  division  were  females.  The 
principal  skilled  occupations  were  those  of  carpenters, 
sailors,  masons,  miners  and  tailors,  but  less  than  one- 
fifth  of  either  group  was  professional  or  skilled. 

The  bulk  of  the  northern  Italians  also  were  destined 
to  a  much  larger  number  of  States  than  the  southern. 
Thus  the  former  were,  for  the  most  part,  bound  to  Cali- 
fornia, Connecticut,  Illinois,  Massachusetts,  Missouri, 
New  Jersey,  New  York,  Pennsylvania  and  Washington. 
The  destinations  of  the  southern  Italians  were  chiefly 
Illinois,  Massachusetts,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  Penn- 
sylvania and  West  Virginia. 

The  earliest  Italian  immigration  to  the  United  States 
was  of  a  very  low  class,  and  took  up  organ-grinding, 
rag-picking,  and  similar  pursuits.  Next  came  barbers, 
bootblacks,  fruiterers  and  shoemakers  from  northern 
Italy.  These  people  were,  on  the  whole,  peaceable  and 
industrious,  and  improved  the  trades  in  which  they 
engaged.  They  soon  began  to  come  through  represen- 
tations of  friends,  with  a  definite  destination  and  purpose 
of  work  in  their  minds.  In  this  respect,  they  differed 
from  the  southern  Italians,  who  in  most  cases  gave  New 
York  as  their  destination  and  were  sent  wherever  the 
padroni  could  find  work  for  them. 

With  the  establishment  of  the  direct  lines  from  Genoa 
and  Naples  to  New  York  and  Boston,  and  through  the 
solicitations  of  steamship  agents  and  of  the  Italian 
padroni  and  bankers  in  this  country,  there  has  been, 
within  the  last  twenty  years,  an  enormous  increase  in 
Italian  immigration,  mainly  from  the  southern  provinces 
on  the  mainland  and  from  Sicily.  These  newer  Italians 
are  let  out  by  contract  to  work  on  railroads,  sewers  and 


56  Immigration  and  Emigration 

the  like.  Many  go  back  and  forth  according  to  the 
state  of  the  labor  market.  Their  standard  of  living  is 
extremely  low,  and,  owing  to  their  intention  of  return- 
ing to  their  own  country,  they  are  largely  indifferent  to 
their  circumstances.  Where  an  Irishman  or  a  German 
demands  meat,  an  Italian  will  work  upon  stale  bread 
and  beer,  and,  although  his  physical  efficiency  is  not 
as  great,  he  works  for  so  much  less  that  it  is  profitable 
to  employ  him. 

Many  Italians  of  the  better  sort  are  expert  fruit- 
growers; instead  of  settling  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard, 
they  have  gone  into  the  interior  or  to  the  Pacific  coast, 
and  become  valuable  additions  to  the  population.  Most 
of  those  who  have  thus  bettered  themselves  have  done 
so  in  response  to  demands  for  labor  of  that  class,  or 
through  information  furnished  by  friends.  Attempts 
have  also  been  made  to  distribute  Italians  from  the  poorer 
sections  of  the  large  cities ;  and,  on  the  whole,  these 
colonization  schemes  have  been  more  successful  than  in 
the  case  of  the  Jews,  a  result  due  no  doubt  to  the  fact 
that  Italians  are  better  fitted  for  manual  labor  and  take 
more  kindly  to  agricultural  pursuits.24  The  main  part  of 
the  recent  immigration  does  not  incline  to  farming;  it 
either  works  under  contract  or  gathers  in  the  slums  of 
the  cities.  Of  all  the  Italian  settlements,  those  in  Boston 
and  New  York  are  the  most  crowded  and  unsanitary. 

The  Italians  do  not  readily  learn  English.  Further- 
more, they  keep  by  themselves,  and,  owing  to  the  great 
preponderance  of  single  men,  there  is  little  family  life. 
In  regard  to  ordinary  matters,  they  are,  as  a  rule,  law 
abiding.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  extremely  hot- 
headed, and  their  quarrels  result  in  many  assaults  and 
homicides,  which  give  them  a  bad  record  for  serious 

24  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.   15,  pp.  499-507. 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration        57 

crimes.  Moreover,  although  not  as  intemperate  as  some 
other  races,  idleness  and  drunkenness  are  constant  temp- 
tations because  of  the  fact  that  many  are  unemployed  a 
considerable  part  of  the  time. 

The  happy  and  cheerful  dispositions  of  the  Italians 
tend  to  make  them  improvident;  and,  in  the  cities  at 
least,  a  larger  proportion  of  cases  demanding  relief 
are  caused  by  inefficiency,  crime  and  dishonesty  than  is 
the  case  with  the  British,  Germans  or  native  Americans. 
Nevertheless,  their  standard  of  living  is  so  low  that  few 
become  paupers ;  indeed,  the  relief  work  of  the  Asso- 
ciated Charities  in  wards  inhabited  chiefly  by  the  race 
has  largely  disappeared.  As  the  average  wages  of  peas- 
ants in  Italy  under  contract  is  about  eight  to  thirty-four 
cents  a  day,  and  never  exceeds  fifty  cents  to  a  dollar  even 
in  harvest  time,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  Italians  in  this 
country  can  send  home  large  sums  of  money.  It  has 
been  said  that  one  can  clearly  recognize  parts  of  Italy, 
from  which  immigration  has  gone  to  this  country,  by 
the  improved  appearance  of  the  houses  and  yards.  Be- 
cause of  this  relief  to  the  poorer  districts  there,  the 
general  sentiment  in  Italy  is  favorable  to  emigration,  and 
the  greater  part  of  those  leaving  home  come  to  the 
United  States. 

Upon  the  whole,  it  may  be  said  that  the  Italians  are 
a  tractable  and  imitative  people,  with  great  capacities — 
either  for  good  or  for  evil.  But,  unless  they  can  be  in- 
duced to  go  into  the  country  districts,  to  adopt  the  idea 
of  permanent  settlement,  and  to  bring  over  families  or 
intermarry  here,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  second  and 
third  generations  will  contribute  a  large  number  of  de- 
fectives and  delinquents.  Like  other  races  which  have 
recently  come  to  us,  the  Italians  take  little  interest  in 
political  matters  and  do  not  readily  assimilate  in  other 


58  Immigration  and  Emigration 

ways.  The  fact  that  many  of  them  are  continually 
moving  about  in  response  to  economic  demand,  and  that 
a  large  number  are  above  the  age  when  they  will  receive 
any  schooling,  makes  assimilation  more  difficult. 

It  is  asserted  that  there  is  a  growing  demand  in  the 
south  for  Italian  labor  to  take  the  place  of  negroes,  and 
that  the  Italians  can  endure  the  sun  as  well  and  turn  out 
a  much  larger  product.  This  demand  is,  however,  for 
intelligent  farmers  and  farm  laborers  with  some  money, 
who  intend  permanent  settlement.  It  cannot  be  supplied 
by  the  class  of  totally  unskilled  Italians  now  arriving  at 
New  York  in  such  large  numbers. 

Japanese.25  Until  recently  immigration  from  Japan 
was  insignificant.  Not  until  1891  did  it  reach  a  thou- 
sand persons  a  year ;  but  since  that  date  it  has  rapidly 
increased.  From  1891  to  1905  inclusive  there  have  come 
to  us  about  95,000  Japanese,  the  largest  immigration  in 
any  one  year  being  14,382  in  1905.  Of  the  86,000  Japa- 
nese in  the  United  States  according  to  the  census  of 
1900,  6i,ui  were  in  Hawaii,  10,151  in  California,  5617 
in  Washington,  and  about  2500  each  in  Oregon  and 
Montana.  It  has  been  stated,26  however,  that  the  figures 
of  Japanese  immigration  given  above  are  entirely  inade- 
quate and  deceptive,  and  that  the  number  of  Japanese 
coolie  laborers  in  California  to-day  is  greater  than  the 
total  Japanese  arrivals  shown  by  the  immigration  records 
at  all  ports  of  the  United  States  for  the  past  ten  years. 
Of  the  14,382  immigrants  arriving  in  1904  practically 
all  were  destined  to  Hawaii,  California,  Washington  and 
Oregon,  and  were  laborers,  farm  laborers,  servants  or 

25  See  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  749- 
766;   Dr.   Allan  McLaughlin,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  voL 
66,  pp.  117-121  (Dec.   1904). 

26  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  p.  755. 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration        59 

persons  without  occupation.  They  showed  about  forty- 
five  dollars  in  money  per  capita;  and  the  average  illit- 
eracy of  those  over  fourteen  years  of  age  was  21.6  per 
cent.,  or  nearly  three  times  that  of  the  select  classes  of 
Chinese  admitted  under  the  Exclusion  Acts. 

The  Japanese  coolies  are  brought  over  largely  by 
"  immigration  companies  "  who  contract  for  their  labor. 
Indeed,  many  of  the  coolies  are  of  a  class  which  could 
not  come  to  this  country  without  assistance.  They  in- 
variably show  exactly  thirty  dollars  at  inspection,  an 
evidence  of  coaching  by  the  companies  importing  them. 
Many  too  come  secretly  across  the  borders  from  Canada 
and  Mexico.  In  the  opinion  of  some  observers,  they  are 
more  undesirable  than  the  Chinese  coolies  who  were 
imported  in  the  same  way  before  the  passage  of  the 
Chinese  Exclusion  Acts.  Wages  in  Japan  are  about 
one-half  those  in  the  United  States,  and  this  stimulus 
to  emigration  is  aided  by  the  pressure  of  population  in 
Japan,  constantly  seeking  for  new  outlets. 

The  hop  and  sugar-beet  fields,  the  ranches,  the 
orchards,  and  the  vineyards  on  the  Pacific  coast  are 
to-day  filled  with  Japanese  laborers  who  have  driven 
out,  in  some  cases,  even  the  Chinese  laborers  who  pre- 
cede them.  The  wages  of  these  coolies  in  the  sugar- 
beet  industry  are  only  eighty-five  to  ninety  cents  per 
day,  out  of  which  they  board  themselves.  They  are  said 
to  be  strong  and  healthy,  many  of  them  having  served 
in  the  Japanese  army.27 

It  is  natural  that  such  a  large  importation  of  laborers 
willing  to  work  for  low  wages  should  stir  up  organized 
labor  against  their  admission.  It  was  to  a  considerable 
extent  organized  labor  which  secured  the  passage  of 
the  Chinese  Exclusion  Acts  and  has  successfully  pre- 

27  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30,  p.  193. 


60  Immigration  and  Emigration 

vented  their  repeal  or  modification.  From  an  economic 
standpoint  the  Japanese  coolies  are  as  dangerous  as  the 
Chinese,  and  as  there  are  plenty  to  come,  demands  by 
labor  organizations  have  been  heard  in  the  last  few 
years  that  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Acts  should  be  ap- 
plied against  all  Asiatics,  a  feeling  reflected  in  the 
Democratic  platform  of  1900.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
is  testimony  to  the  neatness  and  cleanliness  of  the  Japa- 
nese, their  desire  to  learn,  their  freedom  from  crime, 
and  their  desire  faithfully  to  obey  the  laws,28 — facts 
which  must  have  considerable  influence  in  their  favor, 
especially  as  it  is  the  better  class  of  Japanese  who  are 
known  in  the  central  and  eastern  portions  of  the  country. 

Probably  a  good  deal  which  has  been  said  in  favor 
of  the  Japanese  could  also  be  said  in  favor  of  the  higher 
grades  of  the  Chinese;  but  apart  from  the  merits  of  the 
question  it  seems  unlikely  that  this  country  will  ever 
adopt  the  same  policy  with  regard  to  the  Japanese  which 
has  been  followed  with  the  Chinese.  The  fact  that  it 
was  the  United  States  which  opened  Japan  to  western 
civilization  and  induced  the  making  of  treaties  of  friend- 
ship and  commerce ;  the  admiration  of  the  Japanese  for 
this  country  as  shown  by  the  Perry  monument  at  the 
entrance  to  Tokio  Bay,  the  Grant  monument  at 
Nagasaki,  and  the  recent  meeting  in  Tokio  to  celebrate 
the  signing  of  the  first  treaty  with  America ;  and  last 
but  not  least,  the  fact  that  Japan  has  become  a  military 
power — all  are  likely  to  prevent  the  extension  of  the 
Exclusion  Acts  to  the  Japanese. 

Magyars.20     In   1904,  Magyar  immigrants  numbered 

28  See   resolutions   of   Methodist    Preachers'    meeting   at    San 
Francisco,   March   20,    1905. 

29  Peter  Roberts,    Anthracite   Coal   Communities;    Dr.    Allan 
McLaughlin,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  65,  pp.  438-440 
(Sept  1904). 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration        61 

23,883.  They  were  destined  chiefly  to  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania.  With  the  exception  of 
a  small  number  of  artisans,  they  were  practically  all 
unskilled  laborers.  They  showed  sixteen  dollars  per 
capita  and  the  illiteracy  of  those  over  fourteen  years  of 
age  was  14.1  per  cent. 

Most  of  the  Magyars  go  into  factories  where  the  labor 
involves  more  or  less  skill.  Less  than  one-third  seek 
the  mining  regions.  Their  moral  and  industrial  status 
is  higher  than  that  of  the  Slavic  races,  but  they  are 
more  high-strung  and  nervous  and  less  adaptable  than, 
for  example,  the  Slovaks.  Moreover,  owing  to  the 
prosperity  of  Hungary  the  best  class  does  not  emigrate, 
and,  in  common  with  other  peoples  from  eastern  Europe, 
they  do  not  readily  assimilate  or  adopt  our  citizenship. 
They  tend,  like  the  Italians,  to  become  birds  of  passage 
without  permanent  interests  in  the  United  States. 

Scandinavians.50  Scandinavian  immigration,  includ- 
ing that  from  Sweden,  Norway  and  Denmark,  from 
1821  to  1903  amounted  to  1,609,922.  It  was  exceeded 
by  that  from  Germany,  from  Ireland,  and  from  England, 
and  it  exceeded  slightly  that  from  Austria-Hungary,  and 
from  Italy. 

The  total  immigration  in  1904  was  61,029,  of  whom 
nearly  one-half  were  females.  A  considerable  falling 
off  has  been  observable  in  recent  years,  and  most  of 
those  who  now  come  intend  joining  relatives  or  friends 
or  entering  domestic  service.  The  principal  destinations 
for  these  immigrants  were,  in  1904,  Minnesota,  New 
York,  Wisconsin,  North  and  South  Dakota,  Illinois  and 
Michigan.  Among  them  were  many  sailors,  carpenters, 

30  K.  C.  Babcock,  "  The  Scandinavians  in  the  Northwest,"  in 
Forum,  vol.  14,  pp.  103-109  (Sept.  1892)  ;  Report  of  the  In- 
dustrial Commission,  vol.  15,  p.  326,  also  pp.  22,  29,  41  and  54. 


62  Immigration  and  Emigration 

clerks,  painters  and  shoemakers ;  but  the  great  bulk 
consisted  of  laborers  and  servants.  The  average  money 
shown  was  twenty-five  dollars,  and  the  illiteracy  of  those 
over  fourteen  years  of  age  was  0.7  per  cent. — practically 
nothing. 

The  most  important  characteristics  of  the  Scandina- 
vians who  have  come  in  the  past  have  been  their, 
attachment  to  the  soil  and  their  tendency  to  settle  new 
parts  of  the  country.  States  like  Wisconsin,  Minne- 
sota and  the  Dakotas  were  practically  founded  by  Scan- 
dinavian immigrants.  They  assimilate  readily,  take  part 
in  politics,  usually  on  the  side  of  good  government;  and 
they  are  in  every  way  a  desirable  addition  to  the  country. 
Even  where  they  enter  trades  like  the  clothing  trade,  they 
work  under  hygienic  conditions  and  make  use  of  ma- 
chinery. They  send  their  children  to  school  instead  of 
putting  them  into  the  shops.  They  are  also  free  from 
serious  crimes  and  free  from  pauperism;  although  not 
from  small  misdemeanors.  They  have  no  especial  tend- 
ency to  form  colonies,  and,  owing  to  their  universal  edu- 
cation, soon  learn  English.  The  Swedes  are  considered 
on  the  whole  superior  to  the  Norwegians. 

Slavs.31  For  convenience,  the  various  Slav  peoples  will 
be  briefly  considered  together.  The  immigration  of 
Slavic  races  in  1904  was  as  follows : 

31  Peter  Roberts,  Anthracite  Coal  Communities;  Report  of 
the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  389-420  and  passim; 
Charities,  vol.  13,  No.  10  (Dec.  3,  1904)  ;  Dr.  Allan  McLaughlin, 
in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  63,  pp.  25-32  (May,  1903)  ;  E. 
A.  Steiner,  in  Outlook,  vol.  73,  pp.  555-564  (Mar.  7,  1903)  ; 
W.  Z.  Ripley,  Races  of  Europe. 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration        63 

Illiteracy, 

Numbers.  Per  cent. 

Polish 67,757  35-8 

Slovak 27,940  27.9 

Croatian  and  Slovenian 21,242  36.1 

Lithuanian 12,780  54.1 

Bohemian  and  Moravian....  11,911  1.8 

Ruthenian 9,592  58.8 

Bulgarian,  Servian  and 

Montenegrin 4,577  454 

Russian 3,961  26.0 

Dalmatian,  Bosnian  and 

Herzegovinian 2,036  35-6 


TOTAL 161,796 

By  far  the  larger  part  of  these  immigrants  is  un- 
skilled workmen,  and  goes  to  the  mining  regions  of 
Pennsylvania,  although  some  take  up  other  forms  of 
unskilled  labor  and  the  simpler  kinds  of  manufacturing 
industries.  With  the  exception  of  the  Bohemians  they 
bring  but  little  money,  the  average  amounts  shown 
varying  from  eight  dollars,  in  the  case  of  the  Lithuan- 
ians, to  fifteen  dollars  in  the  case  of  the  Russians.  The 
Bohemians  bring  nearly  twice  as  much.  Nearly  all 
Slavs  are  Roman  Catholics,  but  a  few  belong  to  the 
Greek  Church,  still  fewer  to  the  Lutheran  Church. 

The  Poles  were  intrinsically  a  warlike  and  progres- 
sive people.  They  have  been  the  victims  of  political 
oppression  and  spoliation,  and  have  thus  been  reduced 
to  a  lower  industrial  and  social  position  than  they  would 
otherwise  have  reached.  More  than  the  other  Slavic 
races,  they  go  into  manufacturing  concerns  and  mills, 
and  many  have  reached  a  comfortable  independence. 
Five-sixths  of  the  male  Polish  immigrants  are  unskilled 
laborers,  and  practically  all  are  Roman  Catholics. 

The  Bohemians  32  have  an  extremely  low  per  cent,  of 

82  See  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  507- 
510;  E.  A.  Steiner,  in  Outlook,  vol.  73,  pp.  968-972  (Apr.  25, 
1903)  ;  Charities,  vol.  13,  No.  10  (Dec.  3,  1904). 


64  Immigration  and  Emigration 

illiteracy,  less  than  one-half  that  of  German  immigrants. 
They  are  largely  settled  in  New  York,  Chicago,  Cleve- 
land and  other  cities,  where  they  generally  engage  in 
cigar-making  and  in  other  manufacturing  pursuits. 
They  publish  a  number  of  newspapers  and  many  books 
in  the  Czech  language,  and  are  wide  awake  and  pro- 
gressive. In  religion  and  politics  they  are  very  inde- 
pendent. Their  nature  is  said  to  be  at  times  suspicious 
and  quarrelsome,  though  this  seems  less  true  of  the 
younger  generations.  Chicago  is  the  leading  center, 
but  there  are  Bohemian  colonies  in  many  of  the  smaller 
cities  and  towns ;  indeed  the  first  settlements  after  the 
revolution  of  1848  were  comprised  of  students  and  pro- 
fessional men  who  were  forced  on  their  arrival  to  take 
to  farming.  After  the  German  immigration,  the  Bo- 
hemians found  that  as  they  were  able  to  speak  German, 
they  could  go  into  manufacturing  with  more  success,  and 
they  have  since  tended  more  in  that  direction.  This  fact 
has,  in  turn,  induced  the  immigration  of  the  laboring 
class. 

Like  other  peoples  who  have  escaped  from  officialism 
and  autocracy,  the  Bohemians  dislike  law  and  authority, 
and  insist  strenuously  on  their  rights  and  liberties.  In 
Chicago  they  take  part  in  politics  and  their  intellectual 
activity  tends  on  its  political  side  to  lead  them  to  some 
extent  into  socialism.  Upon  the  whole,  the  Bohemians 
are  likely  to  prove  a  valuable  addition  to  our  population, 
especially  if  they  can  be  mixed  with  other  races.  The 
north  Bohemians  are  especially  desirable,  as  the  great 
majority  are  skilled  in  glass  blowing,  textile  industries 
and  the  like.  They  are  chiefly  Roman  Catholic  in  re- 
ligion, and  the  wives  and  children  usually  assist  in  wage- 
earning.33 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  Slavic  immigrant 
33  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30,  p.  10. 


Racial  Conditions  of  Immigration        65 

furnishes  probably  the  most  difficult  problem  with  which 
we  have  to  deal.  For  while,  like  other  immigrants,  he 
has  large  possibilities  of  development  and  improvement 
provided  his  environment  is  favorable,  his  past,  his  cus- 
toms and  his  inherited  traditions  make  change  very  slow, 
especially  in  view  of  his  temporary  residence  and  the 
persistency  with  which  his  love  for  his  native  country 
and  language  survive.  In  the  second  and  third  genera- 
tions, indeed,  many  of  the  Slavs  desire  the  concentration 
of  advantages,  and  consequently  their  birth  rate  is  fall- 
ing and  their  standard  of  living  is  rising.  But  these 
are,  after  all,  only  matters  of  outward  conformity,  and 
the  difference  in  training  between  children  raised  in  a 
native  community  and  those  accustomed  from  childhood 
to  the  surroundings  of  a  foreign  mining  camp  is  im- 
mense. Most  of  what  is  said  later  in  parts  of  this 
volume,  of  the  dangers  and  difficulties  arising  from 
recent  immigration,  is  especially  true  of  Slavic  immigra- 
tion and  need  not  be  repeated  here.  For  more  detailed 
information  in  regard  to  racial  characteristics  the  reader 
is  referred  to  the  references  at  the  beginning  of  this 
division. 

Syrians.31  The  Syrians,  like  the  Armenians,  are  a 
recent  element  of  immigration.  In  1904,  the  total 
Syrian  immigration  was  3,653  persons,  and,  of  these,  300., 
or  nearly  ten  per  cent,  were  debarred.  One  hundred 
and  fifteen  were  debarred  for  disease.  The  Syrians 
came  chiefly  from  Turkey  and  the  West  Indies,  and 
were  destined  for  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio  and  Connecticut.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  a 
few  brought  large  sums,  the  average  money  exhibited 
was  about  sixty  dollars  per  capita,  but  only  one-seventh 
showed  more  than  fifty  dollars.  The  illiteracy  of  those 

34  See  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp. 
442-446. 


66  Immigration  and  Emigration 

over  fourteen  years  of  age,  which  was  54.7  per  cent., 
was  the  highest  for  any  non-European  race. 

Much  of  what  was  said  above  about  Armenians  ap- 
plies also  to  Syrians.  The  chief  business  of  the  race  is 
peddling  and  small  manufacturing.  Many  of  them  take 
up  professional  begging.  Their  principal  defect  is  an 
absolute  disregard  of  truth.  Shortly  after  their  arrival 
many  immigrants  put  their  children  into  public  institu- 
tions, where  they  are  cared  for  and  educated  at  the 
public  expense  until  they  can  obtain  remunerative  work. 
Officers  of  the  Associated  Charities  coming  in  contact 
with  them  assert  that  they  are  among  the  most  difficult 
people  to  deal  with.  On  landing  they  go  immediately  to 
settlements  of  their  countrymen,  from  which  an  inde- 
scribable condition  of  congestion,  filth  and  poverty  re- 
sults. Their  physique  is  poor,  and  they  are  very  subject 
to  loathsome  and  contagious  diseases. 

Some  of  the  immigrants  have  an  instinct  for  weaving 
and  go  into  silk  and  cotton  mills,  apparently  with  some 
success.  Their  emigration  is  said  to  be  due  to  the  mis- 
rule of  the  Turkish  authorities;  and  that  they  come  to 
the  United  States  is  the  work  of  missionaries.  Nine- 
tenths  of  them  are  Catholics,  though  a  few  belong  to 
other  sects.  Unless  coupled  with  free  support,  they  have 
only  the  slightest  desire  for  education,  and  it  is  estimated 
that  there  are  less  than  100  Syrian  children  in  the  public 
and  parochial  schools  of  New  York.  The  relatively 
wealthy  Syrians,  it  is  said,  are  more  bent  on  the  accumu- 
lation of  money  than  on  the  improvement  of  their  stand- 
ard of  living,  and  many  continue  to  live  in  the  same 
manner  as  their  poorer  neighbors.  On  the  whole  they 
are  fairly  temperate,  and  more  peaceable  than  some 
other  nationalities.  It  is  their  other  qualities  that  make 
them  very  undesirable  immigrants. 


CHAPTER  IV 
ECONOMIC    CONDITIONS    OF    IMMIGRATION 

A.     MONEY   VALUE   OF   THE   IMMIGRANT 

IN  describing  the  economic  conditions  of  immigration, 
we  have  first  to  consider  the  immigrant  himself,  re- 
garded from  an  economic  standpoint.  This  topic  falls 
under  two  heads:  first,  the  personal  value  of  the  immi- 
grant; and  second,  the  money  or  other  capital  which 
he  brings  with  him. 

In  estimating  the  money  value  of  the  immigrant,  at- 
tention may  first  be  called  to  the  fact  that  the  bulk  of 
our  immigration  is  of  the  age  of  greatest  productive- 
ness; that  is  to  say,  this  country  has  the  benefit  of  an 
artificial  selection  of  adults  of  working  age.  For  ex- 
ample, in  1903,  less  than  12  per  cent,  of  all  immigrants 
were  under  fourteen  years  of  age;  and  less  than  5  per 
cent,  were  over  forty-five  years  of  age,  leaving  more 
than  83  per  cent,  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  forty- 
five.  In  other  words,  the  expense  of  bringing  up  the 
bulk  of  our  immigrants  through  childhood  has  been 
borne  by  the  countries  of  their  birth  or  residence,  and 
this  amount  of  capital  therefore  comes  to  us  without 
expenditure.  Professor  Mayo-Smith  refers  to  the  fre- 
quently quoted  estimate  of  Frederic  Kapp  J  that  the  cost 
of  bringing  up  a  child  to  the  age  of  fifteen  is  $562.50 
in  Germany,  and  $1000  to  $1200  in  the  United  States. 

1  Immigration  and  the  New  York  Commissioners  of  Emi- 
gration, p.  146  (1870). 

67 


68  Immigration  and  Emigration 

Taking  the  value  of  the  immigrant  at  $1000,  the  immi- 
gration over  fourteen  years  of  age  in  1903  would  have 
added  $754,615,000  to  the  wealth  of  the  United  States 
if  it  had  all  remained  in  the  country. 

But  Mayo-Smith 2  rightly  considers  this  kind  of  an 
estimate  fallacious,  as  well  as  that  which  holds  that  the 
true  test  of  the  value  of  an  immigrant  is  not  the  cost  of 
production,  so  to  speak,  but  the  amount  of  wealth  he 
will  add  to  the  country  before  his  death,  less  the  cost 
of  his  maintenance.  The  latter  valuation  has  been 
variously  given  as  $875  for  English  and  $225  for  Ger- 
mans, and  is  based  on  the  expectation  of  life,  cost  of 
living  and  average  wages.  This  method  of  valuation 
assumes  steady  employment  at  a  fairly  constant  wage. 
But  one  has  no  right  to  take  for  granted  that  these  con- 
ditions obtain.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  know  that  at  all 
times  an  appreciable  per  cent,  of  labor  is  unemployed, 
and  at  certain  times,  a  large  per  cent. ;  and  it  cannot  be 
assumed  that  immigrants  coming  in  vast  numbers  to  a 
strange  land  will  at  once  or  continuously  be  employed 
in  the  occupation  for  which  they  are  fitted,  or  that  they 
receive  the  average  wages  in  those  occupations.  Indeed 
we  know  that  directly  the  opposite  is  true.  We  know 
that  the  proprietor  of  the  sweatshop  pays  starvation 
wages,  and  that  the  padrone  supplies  laborers  at  from 
25  to  60  per  cent,  less  than  the  current  wages  of  unskilled 
labor.  We  know  that,  because  of  the  congestion  in 
cities,  recent  immigrants  have  the  greatest  difficulty  to 
obtain  employment  at  all,  and  that  the  oft-repeated  de- 
mand of  the  labor  organizations  for  further  restriction 
is  due  not  only  to  increased  competition,  but  to  the  com- 
petition of  those  who  are  willing  to  cut  the  union  rates 
of  wages. 

z  Emigration  and  Immigration,  pp.  104-109. 


Economic  Conditions  of  Immigration     69 

It  is  difficult,  therefore,  to  say  precisely  what  the 
money  value  of  the  immigrant  is.  The  remote  as  well 
as  the  immediate  effects  of  his  coming  must  be  consid- 
ered, and  also  the  state  of  employment  and  the  rate  of 
wages  at  the  time  of  his  arrival.  A  thoroughly  conserv- 
ative estimate  is  probably  that  of  Mr.  John  B.  Webber,3 
formerly  Commissioner  of  Immigration  at  the  port  of 
New  York.  He  assumes  that  there  were  10,000,000  for- 
eign born  at  the  date  of  the  eleventh  census  and  that 
2,000,000  of  these  were  working  at  an  average  wage  of 
$1.00  per  day;  and  he  points  out  that  these  persons 
added  $600,000,000  a  year  to  the  earnings  of  this 
country. 

When  we  inquire  into  the  amount  of  capital  the  im- 
migrant brings  with  him  in  the  form  of  money,  a  more 
definite  answer  can  be  given  as  to  his  economic  value. 
Thus  it  appears  that,  in  1903,  857,046  newcomers  ex- 
hibited to  the  inspectors  the  sum  of  $16,117,513,  or  an 
average  of  about  $19  apiece.  This  was  a  slight  increase 
over  previous  years.  The  average  shown  in  1896  was  $11 ; 
in  1898  and  1899,  $17;  in  1897,  1900  and  1901,  $15;  and 
in  1902,  $16.  In  1904  the  average  money  shown  was 
$26,  and,  no  doubt,  the  more  prosperous  always  bring 
in  a  great  deal  which  is  not  exhibited.  In  considering 
these  amounts,  however,  it  should  be  remembered  that, 
instead  of  bringing  money  with  them,  it  is  becoming 
more  and  more  common  for  immigrants  to  send  it  ahead 
through  banking  institutions ;  but  no  one  has  attempted 
to  state  the  amount  thus  sent.4 

The  reader,  however,  must  not  infer  from  the  fore- 
going figures  that  every  immigrant  brings  in  a  sum  near 

8  In  North  American  Review,  vol.   154,  p.  435    (Apr.   1892). 
4  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Immigration  at  New  York  for 
1901. 


70  Immigration  and  Emigration 

the  average.  In  1904,  215,765  persons,  or  over  26  per 
cent,  of  the  total  immigration,  exhibited  no  money  at 
all.  Of  course,  many  of  these  were  children  and  married 
women.  But,  in  recent  years,  large  numbers  of  un- 
skilled laborers  have  been  allowed  to  land  who  had  only  a 
dollar  or  even  less  in  their  possession,  and  it  can  be 
shown  that  the  method  of  including  children  does  -not 
affect  the  general  proposition  that  a  large  proportion 
bring  less  than  the  average  money.  Thus  in  1895, 
160,103  immigrants  over  20  years  of  age  brought 
$4,126,793,  or  an  average  of  $25.97  each;  and  if  all 
immigrants  had  been  included,  the  per  capita  amount 
would  have  been  only  $16.34.  The  same  report  for  1895 
also  shows  that  78  per  cent,  of  the  160,103  immigrants 
brought  less  than  $30,  and  only  22  per  cent,  brought 
more ;  and  it  is  clear  that,  even  allowing  for  the  difference 
between  $26  and  $30,  a  large  proportion  of  those  over 
twenty  years  of  age  must  have  brought  less  than  the 
average  money.  In  1895  an  examination  was  made  of 
the  manifests  of  331  illiterates  landed  at  Ellis  Island, 
New  York,  chiefly  Russian  Jews,  Austro-Hungarians 
(mostly  Magyars,  Galicians  and  Croatians)  and  some 
Syrians.  Of  these,  32,  or  10  per  cent.,  brought  in  no 
money  at  all;  101,  or  30  per  cent.,  brought  from  one  to 
five  dollars  each;  92,  or  28  per  cent.,  brought  from  six 
to  ten  dollars ;  and  106,  or  32  per  cent.,  brought  over  ten 
dollars.  In  other  words,  40  per  cent,  of  those  examined 
had  five  dollars  or  less,  and  68  per  cent,  ten  dollars  or 
less.  The  report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Immigration 
for  1892,  page  26,  shows  that  of  9639  Russian  Jews 
arriving  at  New  York,  333  brought  more  than  $100,  one 
of  them  $25,000;  but,  of  the  9306  remaining,  nearly  all 
were  destitute. 

In  1904,  the    total    money    exhibited    by    immigrants 


Economic  Conditions  of  Immigration     71 

amounted  to  nearly  twenty-one  millions.  Probably  a 
further  amount  was  brought  in  but  not  shown.  Great 
diversity  exists  in  the  average  amounts  of  money  brought 
by  the  different  races.  This  is  shown  by  the  following 
table  for  the  year  1900 : 5 

Amount  of  Amount  of 

money  shown  money  shown 

Races  per  capita  Races  per  capita 

Scotch $4i-5i  Syrian $14.31 

Japanese 39.59  Chinese 13.98 

English 38.90  Finnish 13.06 

French 37-8o  Croatian  and  Slavonian.  12.51 

Greek 28.78  Slovak 1 1.69 

German 28.53  Ruthenian  (Russniak)  .  .  10.51 

Bohemian  and  Moravian  23.12  Portuguese 10.47 

Italian    (northern) 22.49  Magyar 10.39 

Dutch  and  Flemish 21.00  Polish 9.94 

Cuban 19-34  Italian   (southern).  .   ..  8.84 

Scandinavian 16.65  Hebrew 8.67 

Russian 14-94  Lithuanian 7.96 

Irish 14.50 

From  this  it  is  evident  that  the  races  coming  to  us 
recently  in  the  largest  numbers,  stand  much  nearer  the 
foot  of  the  list  than  those  of  which  our  immigration  was 
chiefly  composed  before  1880.  For  example,  the  north- 
ern Italians,  who  formed  the  beginning  of  Italian  immi- 
gration, brought  nearly  three  times  as  much  as  their 
southern  brothers,  who,  for  a  number  of  years,  have 
constituted  the  largest  single  element  in  immigration. 
The  great  numbers  of  poor  Hebrews  sufficed  far  to  out- 
weigh any  rich  traders,  and  brought  the  average  of  that 
race  down  nearly  to  the  bottom  of  the  list. 

As  a  general  principle,  also,  it  is  true  that  the  best 
educated  races  and  those  contributing  the  most  skilled 
labor  bring  the  largest  share  of  the  pecuniary  results  of 
that  skill  and  intelligence.  This  is  strikingly  brought  out 
in  the  following  table  made  up  for  the  year  1899  for 
immigrants  arriving  at  the  port  of  New  York: 

5  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  p.  284. 


72  Immigration  and  Emigration 

Per  cent  Money  brough't 

Race  of  People  of  Illiterate*  per  capita 

Portuguese 45.73  $  7.57 

South    Italians 46.56  8.79 

Lithuanians 28.05  8.18 

Ruthenians 45.83  9.53 

Syrians 41.22  13.95 

Poles 28.39  10.37 

Slovaks 26.22  12.82 

Northern  Italians n.oo  22.00 

Germans 4.43  29. 18 

French 3.53  31.97 

British 2.43  29.51 

The  table  likewise  shows  that  even  among  the  illiterate 
races,  the  more  illiterate  bring  the  less  money. 

While  the  amount  of  money  brought  by  an  immi- 
grant can  be  only  a  rough  and  deceptive  test  of  his  worth, 
it  does  enable  us  to  make  certain  predictions  about  his 
economic  relations  after  landing.  For  example,  the 
money  brought  has  an  important  bearing  upon  the  auto- 
matic distribution  of  immigrants.  Those  who  bring  little 
money  are  tied  to  the  seaboard,  and  unable  to  enter  occu- 
pations requiring  capital.  This  is  why  so  few  of  the 
relatively  illiterate  races  go  to  the  West  or  the  South, 
or  become  landowners. 

Whatever  money  is  brought  is,  however,  a  direct  gain 
to  the  nation.  It  generally  represents  the  price  realized 
by  the  immigrant  from  the  sale  of  his  farm  or  business 
in  the  old  country,  or  his  savings  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
period.  The  money,  furthermore,  is  spent  in  the  United 
States,  and  no  equivalent  need  be  sent  abroad  to  make  a 
balance  of  trade.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what 
proportion  it  bears  to  the  amount  our  people  spend  in 
European  travel.  Whatever  it  is,  the  money  devoted 
annually  by  this  country  to  the  benefit  of  aliens,  repre- 
sents a  capital  far  in  excess  of  the  surplus  brought  by 
well-to-do  immigrants  and  not  needed  for  their  own 
support. 


Economic  Conditions  of  Immigration     73 

Besides  the  cost  of  diseased  and  destitute  aliens  to 
this  nation,  there  must  also  be  set,  against  the  money 
brought,  the  amount  remitted  abroad  or  taken  out  by 
returning  emigrants.  The  figures  representing  this  are 
largely  guesswork  and  are  taken  entirely  from  unoffi- 
cial sources.  In  1883,  the  sum  sent  to  Italy  alone  was 
reported  by  the  Italian  Vice-Consul  at  New  York  to  be 
nearly  five  millions  of  dollars;  and  the  Commissioner  at 
New  York  in  1896  stated  that  conservative  estimates  of 
the  total  amount  varied  from  four  millions  to  thirty 
millions  of  dollars.8  Commissioner-General  Stump, 
during  a  trip  abroad  as  Chairman  of  the  Immigration 
Investigating  Commission,  noted  that  "  the  marked  in- 
crease in  the  wealth  of  certain  sections  of  Italy  can  be 
traced  directly  to  the  money  earned  in  the  United 
States."  Various  British  authorities  have  asserted  that 
the  amount  sent  to  Ireland  from  this  country  each  year 
exceeded  the  total  cost  of  poor  relief  in  Ireland. 

In  respect  to  assisted  immigration  we  found  that  from 
ten  to  fifty  per  cent,  of  all  immigrants  came  as  "  prepaids." 
If  we  assume  an  average  immigration  of  600,000  per- 
sons, with  200,000  coming  as  "  prepaids,"  and  that  the 
average  rate  of  passage  was  $25  we  shall  have  five  mil- 
lions of  dollars  accounted  for  in  this  way.  Probably 
this  estimate  is  much  too  small;  and,  in  addition  to  the 
passage  money,  not  a  little  is  sent  for  incidentals,  and  to 
show  on  inspection.7 

The  economic  value  of  the  immigrant  may  be  further 

6  See  Rhoda  Gale,  in  Lippincott's,  vol.  58,  p.  234  (Aug.    1896). 
The   latter   figure    is   given   in   Special   Consular  Reports,   vol. 
30,  p.  83  (1904). 

7  The  Dingley  report,  p.  249,  speaks  of  this  export  of  money  in 
the  following  language : 

"  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  if  the  countries  of  Europe  were 
for  one  year  deprived  of  the  vast  sums  of  money  sent  to  Europe 


74  Immigration  and  Emigration 

considered  from  the  standpoint  of  the  savings  accumu- 
lated after  arrival  and  not  sent  out  of  this  country.  In 
the  large  cities  the  Jews  have  acquired  considerable  real 
estate  and  have  also  moderately  large  deposits  in  savings 
banks.  The  Slav  miners  in  the  anthracite  industry,  in 
four  towns  alone,  own  $2,500,000  in  real  estate,  or  about 
$100  per  capita  of  the  Slav  population  in  these  towns. 
In  one  town  they  own  two-fifths  of  the  homes  having  an 
average  value  of  $953  each.8 

The  Italians  in  New  York  City  are  said  to  hold 
$60,000,000  worth  of  property,  of  which  $15,000,000  is 
in  savings  bank  deposits ;  and  those  in  St.  Louis,  San 
Francisco,  Boston  and  Chicago  are  reported  to  have  even 
larger  amounts.9  These  figures  give  some  idea  of  the 
additions  to  the  wealth  of  the  community  made  by  the 
newer  comers  to  our  shores,  and  constitute  a  hopeful 
sign  for  the  future.  The  sacrifice  of  comfort,  health  and 
decency  involved  in  the  production  of  this  wealth,  how- 
ever, should  never  be  forgotten,  and  the  effects  of  such  a 
sacrifice  must  be  paid  for  by  the  community  in  many 
forms. 

B.    OCCUPATIONS 

The  Immigration  Bureau  in  its  annual  reports  gives 
elaborate  and  interesting  tables  showing  the  occupations 
of  immigrants.  These  may  be  roughly  grouped  into: 
(i)  professional  and  skilled,  (2)  agricultural,  (3)  per- 

from  the  United  States  by  immigrants  and  taken  to  Europe  by 
the  visiting  and  returning  immigrant,  every  department  of 
European  enterprise  would  feel  the  shock." 

8  See   Kate    H.    Claghorn,    "  Immigration    in    its    Relation   to 
Pauperism,"  in  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science,  vol.  24,  p.  201    (July,   1904).     As  to  the  mining 
regions   see   Peter  Roberts,   The  Anthracite  Coal  Communities, 
chap.   ix. 

9  G.  C.  Speranza,  in  Charities,  vol.  12,  p.  462  (May  7,  1904). 


Economic  Conditions  of  Immigration    75 

sonal  and  domestic  servants,  (4)  laborers,  (5)  persons 
with  no  occupation,  including"  women  and  children,  and 
(6)  all  others.  Out  of  a  total  immigration  of  857,046 
in  1903,  124,683,  or  14.6  per  cent,  were  skilled;  90,881, 
or  10.6  per  cent,  were  farmers  and  farm  laborers ;  92,686, 
or  10.8  per  cent,  were  personal  and  domestic  servants; 
320,642,  or  37.4  per  cent,  were  laborers ;  199,701,  or  23.3 
per  cent,  were  without  occupation;  leaving  21,454,  or  2.5 
per  cent,  to  cover  all  others. 

The  first  thing  that  impresses  us  in  these  figures  is  the 
large  proportion  of  unskilled  labor.  Thus,  the  percen- 
tages of  immigrants  having  no  occupation,  including 
women  and  children,  since  1894  have  been  as  follows : 

1895 36 

1896 36 

1897 39 

1898 394 

1899 35-1 

1900 30.1 

1901 30.5 

1902 23.6 

1903 23.3 

1904 26.4 

1905 22.6 

The  diminution  in  this  class  is  probably  more  appar- 
ent than  real,  and  is  due  in  part  to  greater  care  in  the 
tabulation  of  statistics  and  the  preparation  of  manifests, 
and  in  part  to  the  impression  among  the  immigrants  that 
the  giving  of  an  occupation  tends  to  improve  the  chances 
of  admission.  The  percentage  of  immigrants  who  were 
farm  laborers,  laborers,  or  servants  for  the  same  years 
was  as  follows: 

1895 42 

1896 46 

1897 40 

1898 40.3 

1899 47-3 


76  Immigration  and  Emigration 

1900 53.0 

1901 53-1 

1902 60.6 

1903 57-3 

1904 494 

1905 54-1 

Combining  the  two  foregoing  tables,  it  appears  that 
the  proportion  of  immigrants  practically  without  knowl- 
edge of  a  trade  or  means  of  livelihood  has  remained 
nearly  constant  for  the  last  decade,  and  is  about  four- 
fifths  of  the  total  arrivals.  In  1893,  skilled  immigrants 
were  supplied  in  the  following  proportions:  among  im- 
migrants from  Scotland,  i  in  4  was  skilled ;  from  England 
and  Wales,  i  in  5 ;  from  Belgium,  i  in  7 ;  from  France, 
I  in  9 ;  from  Germany  and  Norway,  I  in  10 ;  from  Italy, 
I  in  14;  from  Russia,  i  in  18 ;  from  Poland,  i  in  23 ;  from 
Austria-Hungary,  i  in  29.  The  immigration  from  Ger- 
many, Scandinavia  and  Ireland  contains  a  large  propor- 
tion of  females  intending  to  enter  domestic  service. 

In  1903,  the  proportion  of  skilled  persons  in  the  races 
contributing  ten  thousand  or  more  immigrants  was  as 
follows :  English  and  Hebrew,  I  in  3 ;  German,  i  in  5 ; 
Italian  (North)  and  Scandinavian,  I  in  6;  Italian 
(South),  i  in  8;  Greek,  i  in  9;  Irish,  I  in  n  ;  Magyar, 
I  in  13;  Croatian  and  Slovenian,  I  in  19;  Japanese  and 
Polish,  I  in  22 ;  Finnish  and  Lithuanian,  I  in  24 ;  Slovak, 
I  in  25. 

The  principal  skilled  occupations  to  which  over  1000 
immigrants  belonged  in  1903,  were  as  follows :  bakers, 
3885;  barbers,  3069;  blacksmiths,  5345;  butchers,  2810; 
carpenters  and  joiners,  13,250;  clerks  and  accountants, 
6978;  gardeners,  1182;  ironworkers,  1448;  locksmiths, 
2549;  machinists,  1395;  mariners,  9148;  masons,  7085; 
miners,  8059 ;  painters  and  glaziers,  2826 ;  seamstresses 
and  dressmakers,  8513;  shoemakers,  9770;  stonecutters, 


Economic  Conditions  of  Immigration     77 

I73°>'  tailors,  15,992;  tinners,  1465;  weavers  and  spin- 
ners, 3823.  In  addition  to  the  skilled  immigrants,  there 
were  also  6999  professional  persons,  of  whom  the  largest 
number,  2286,  were  engineers,  and  the  next  largest,  853, 
were  teachers.  Mention  should  also  be  made  of  12,379 
merchants,  dealers,  and  grocers,  not  included  under  any 
other  heading. 

In  considering  these  statistics,  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  pursuits  reported  by  the  immigrants  are 
not  necessarily  their  real  occupations ;  and,  also,  that 
large  numbers  will  take  up  entirely  different  pursuits  in 
this  country.  For  example,  nearly  one-half  of  the  farm 
laborers  were  destined  for  the  two  States  of  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania,  and  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  all 
of  these  finally  followed  agricultural  occupations. 

C.    BIRDS  OF  PASSAGE 

Attention  has  already  been  directed  to  the  immigrants 
who  remain  here  a  certain  time,  then  go  abroad,  and  re- 
turn some  months  or  years  later;  and  who,  perhaps, 
repeat  this  process  several  or  many  times.  Such  immi- 
grants are  generally  known  as  "  birds  of  passage."  Be- 
fore 1897  no  figures  were  published  showing  who  had 
been  in  this  country  before.  The  percentages  begin- 
ning with  that  year  are  as  follows : 

1897 iQ-3 

1898 18.6 

1899 154 

1900 1 1.6 

1901 11.9 

1902 9.5 

1903 •  •  .TT.T 8.9 

1904 12.8 

1905 I7-I 

The  decrease  in  the  number  of  "  birds  of  passage  " 
is  probably  due  in  part  to  the  greater  care  taken  in  pre- 


78  Immigration  and  Emigration 

paring  manifests  and  in  inspection,  and  in  part  to  knowl- 
edge on  the  part  of  immigrants  that  a  hue  and  cry  has 
been  raised  against  birds  of  passage.  But  a  more 
important  factor  undoubtedly  is  the  increasing  propor- 
tion of  immigrants  from  the  Mediterranean.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  our  information  upon  this,  as  on  so  many 
other  subjects  related  to  immigration,  is  derived  from 
the  unverified  assertions  of  the  immigrants  themselves. 

Italy  and  Canada  are  the  countries  which  furnish  the 
greatest  number  of  the  class  we  are  now  considering. 
Many  Italians  come  in  the  spring  to  work  during  the 
summer  season,  when  public  works  are  undertaken,  and 
return  to  Europe  in  the  autumn  when  the  demand  for 
labor  has  diminished.  In  each  case,  they  bring  practically 
no  money  and  live  very  frugally  while  here,  carrying 
back  in  the  fall  sums  of  money  ranging  as  high  as  $1000. 
With  this  they  purchase  homes  in  Italy,  where  they  can 
live  more  cheaply  than  in  the  United  States.  There  are 
also  many  skilled  laborers  who  come  from  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  during  the  summer  and  return  during  the 
winter. 

But  by  far  the  largest  class  of  birds  of  passage  con- 
sists of  those  coming,  not  from  across  the  water,  but 
from  contiguous  territories.  It  has  been  estimated  that 
from  50,000  to  70,000  native  Canadians  come  yearly  into 
the  United  States  during  the  busy  season  and  return  to 
Canada  during  the  winter.  The  competition  of  these 
Canadians  is  severe  and  is  felt  chiefly  in  New  England 
and  in  the  States  across  the  Canadian  border.  As  in  the 
case  of  the  Italians,  most  of  the  money  earned  is  sent 
back  or  taken  back  to  the  mother  country. 

Opinions  as  to  the  desirability  of  this  class  of  immi- 
grants vary  considerably.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is  pointed 
out  that  they  are  willing  to  underbid  the  current  rate  of 


Economic  Conditions  of  Immigration     79 

wages  in  order  to  get  employment,  and  that  they  return 
home  to  spend  their  money,  having  formed  no  permanent 
ties,  and  having  acquired  a  relatively  slight  acquaintance 
with  our  institutions  and  standards  of  living.10  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  asserted  that,  after  three  or  four  visits, 
many  of  these  immigrants  send  for  their  families  and 
become  permanent  settlers.  It  is  also  said  that  formerly 
one-half  of  the  Italians  returned  each  year,  but  that  now 
the  proportion  does  not  exceed  one-quarter,  and  the 
general  tendency  is  to  form  a  permanent  settlement. 

The  official  returns  do  not  disclose  how  often  the 
arrivals  listed  have  been  in  the  United  States  before; 
but  the  present  writer  has  examined  some  thousands  of 
manifests,  from  which  it  appears  that  in  many  cases 
immigrants  have  visited  this  country  five,  six,  or  seven 
times,  and  that  cases  of  two,  three  and  four  visits  are 
common.  An  examination  of  the  manifests  of  3174 
Italians,  in  1896,  showed  that  27.7  had  been  in  the  coun- 
try before.  As  a  rule  these  persons  do  not  bring  their 
families  with  them,  and  the  proportion  of  women  is  very 
low. 

10  For  example,  R.  P.  Faulkner,  in  Political  Science  Quar- 
terly, vol.  19,  p.  42  (March,  1904),  expresses  this  feeling:  "The 
temporary  immigration  is  much  to  be  deplored,  since  it  intro- 
duces into  the  body  politic  a  class  of  people  not  only  alien  in 
fact  but  determined  to  remain  so,  wholly  indifferent  to  their 
adaptation  to  the  conditions  of  life  by  which  they  find  them- 
selves surrounded.  To  put  it  in  another  form,  we  have  here 
a  class  eager  to  profit  by  our  standard  of  wages  but  unwilling 
to  adopt  our  standard  of  expenditure.  .  .  .  That  it  [standard  of 
living]  is  to  some  degree  a  factor  in  determining  wages  is 
generally  conceded,  and  the  introduction  and  maintenance  of  a 
lower  standard  must  result  in  injury  to  the  working  classes 
when  it  embraces  a  number  of  persons  large  enough  to  be  a 
factor  in  the  labor  market" 


CHAPTER  V 
SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  OF  IMMIGRATION 

A.     ILLITERACY 

AN  "  illiterate  "  immigrant  as  denned  by  the  Immigra- 
tion Bureau  is  one  fourteen  years  of  age  or  over  who 
cannot  write,  or  who  can  neither  read  nor  write  any 
recognized  language  or  dialect;  whether  it  be  the  lan- 
guage or  dialect  of  his  native  or  resident  country,  or,  as 
in  the  case  of  Yiddish,  one  used  by  a  particular  sect  or 
community. 

The  general  illiteracy  of  immigrants  in  recent  years 
has  been  as  follows : 

Per  cent,  of  illiterate 
In  total  immigration 
over  15  years  of  age 

1895 20 

1896 29 

1897 23 

Over  14  years  of  age 

1898 23 

1899 19-7 

1900 24.3 

1901 28.4 

1902 25.4 

1903 25.0 

1904 24.6 

1905 26.2 

In  1903  there  were  about  190,000  illiterate  immigrants 
over  fourteen  years  of  age,  who  were  not  likely  to  re- 
ceive any  schooling  after  their  arrival,  fourteen  years 
being  the  limit  of  compulsory  education  in  most  of  the 
States. 

80 


Social  Conditions  of  Immigration  81 

The  illiteracy  of  the  different  races  contributing  more 

than  2000  immigrants  each  during  the  past  three  years 
has  been  as  follows : 

NORTHERN  AND  WESTERN  EUROPE 

(Chiefly  Teutonic  and  Keltic)  190*            1903  1904 

Scotch 1.2          1.2  0.6 

Scandinavian 0.5          0.6  0.7 

English 1.9          1.6  1.3 

Bohemian  and  Moravian 1.6          1.6  1.8 

Finnish 1.4          2.2  2.7 

French  4.8          3.8  3.2 

Irish 3.9          3.8  3.4 

Dutch  and  Flemish 7.6          6.9  4. 1 

German 5.4          4.6  4.8 

Italian  (North) 14.4        12.7  12.6 

AVERAGE  OF  ABOVE 4.4         3.9  4.0 


SOUTHERN  AND  EASTERN  EUROPE 
(Chiefly  Slavic  and  Iberic) 

Spanish 8.9  9.8 

Magyar 13.3  10.5  14.1 

Greek 30.0  27.7  23.6 

Russian 31.9  26.0 

Slovak 25.9  21.6  27.9 

Roumanian 28.3  21.5  31.7 

Dalmatian,  Bosnian  and  Herzegovinian 35.6 

Polish 38.4  32.1  35.8 

Croatian  and   Slovenian 42.2  35.2  36.1 

Bulgarian,   Servian,   Montenegrin 44.7  45.4 

Lithuanian 54.1  46.6  54.1 

Italian  (South) 56.4  51.4  54.2 

Ruthenian 50.0  49.4  58.8 

Portuguese 71.6  73.2  67.5 

AVERAGE  OF  ABOVE 44.3  39.7  42.6 


OTHER  RACES 

Chinese 12.9  8.2 

Cuban 8.0  4.2  8.7 

Japanese , 1.2  27.0  21.6 

Hebrew 28.6  26.5  23.3 

African    (black) 32.5  23.7 

Syrian 51.0  53.8  54.7 


82  Immigration  and  Emigration 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  illiteracy  of  southern  and 
eastern  Europe  is  nearly  ten  times  that  of  northern  and 
western  Europe,  and  that  the  Syrians  are  more  than  one- 
half  illiterate.  If  the  age  limit  of  the  above  table  were 
ten  instead  of  fourteen  years,  the  contrast  with  the  native 
illiteracy  of  10.7  per  cent,  would  be  much  more  striking. 
The  illiteracy  of  particular  shiploads  is  often  much  above 
the  foregoing  figures.  From  manifests  examined  by  the 
writer  at  New  York  in  1902  the  illiteracy  of  Hebrews 
was  44.9  per  cent.,  and  of  Syrians  76.8  per  cent.  It  is 
asserted  that  the  Hebrew  illiteracy  arises  from  the  immi- 
grant's misunderstanding  of  the  question  whether  he  can 
read  and  write,  and  that,  in  fact,  all  Hebrews  can 
read  and  write  Yiddish.  Actual  tests  made  at  New  York 
by  the  Immigration  Restriction  League  do  not,  however, 
entirely  sustain  this  contention.  Reliable  figures  as  to 
the  illiteracy  of  the  various  races  of  Asia  and  Africa  in 
their  own  countries  are  not  available;  but,  as  nearly 
30,000  Asiatics,  or  3.5  per  cent,  of  the  total  immigration, 
came  to  our  shores  in  1903,  and  as  this  immigration  is 
sure  to  increase  with  the  spread  of  steamship  lines  to  the 
Mediterranean  and  the  Levant,  there  is  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  the  average  illiteracy  may  increase  in  the  near 
future,  in  spite  of  the  spread  of  education  in  parts  of 
Europe. 

The  relative  illiteracy  of  males  and  females  for  speci- 
men groups  of  certain  races  landing  at  New  York  in 
1901  was  as  follows: 

RACE  Mates  Females 

Armenian 14  37 

Bohemian  and  Moravian 2  3 

Croatian  and  Slovenian 50  55 

English 2  8 

Finnish i  3 

German 9  n 

Greek 4  6 


Social  Conditions  of  Immigration  83 

RACE  Males  Females 

Irish 4  6 

Italian,  North  20  21 

Italian,  South   62  74 

Magyar n  12 

Polish 36  48 

Ruthenian 66  78 

Scandinavian I  I 

Scotch 2  3 

Slovak 20  21 

Syrian 55  81 


B.     CRIME,    INSANITY   AND  DISEASE 

An  act  passed  in  1875  prohibited  the  immigration  of 
convicts,  except  those  guilty  of  political  offences ;  or,  as 
it  is  expressed  in  the  present  law,  "  persons  who  have 
been  convicted  of  a  felony  or  other  crime  or  misde- 
meanor involving  moral  turpitude,"  provided,  "  that 
nothing  in  this  act  shall  exclude  persons  convicted  of  an 
offence  purely  political,  not  involving  moral  turpitude." 
In  1904,  out  of  over  812,870  immigrants,  only  35  were 
debarred  under  this  clause — a  small  percentage  probably 
of  the  number  who  should  have  been  excluded.  Men- 
tion has  been  made  *  of  the  extent  to  which  for- 
eign governments  and  societies  have  endeavored  in 
the  past  to  get  rid  of  criminals  by  sending  them  to  this 
country,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  the  practice  has  entirely 
ceased.  In  such  cases  the  immigrant  is  doubtless  well 
"  coached  "  for  his  inspection  here,  and,  without  the  co- 
operation of  foreign  officials,  it  is  nearly  impossible  to 
obtain  sufficient  evidence  to  secure  exclusion.  The  writer 
has  been  told  by  an  eye  witness  of  at  least  one  case  within 
ten  years,  where,  of  two  persons  arrested  in  England  for 
an  offence  the  penalty  for  which  was  six  months'  im- 
prisonment, one  who  had  a  ticket  to  America  was  allowed 
to  proceed  on  his  way  while  the  other  suffered  the  full 
penalty. 

1  Chapter  ii.,  F. 


84  Immigration  and  Emigration 

The  present  law  excludes  idiots,  insane  persons,  epilep- 
tics, persons  who  have  been  insane  within  five  years 
previous  and  persons  who  have  had  two  or  more  attacks 
of  insanity  at  any  time  previously.  In  1904,  under  these 
provisions,  49  persons  were  debarred  out  of  812,870.  Of 
these  49  persons,  16  were  idiots  and  33  were  insane  per- 
sons. While  the  law  no  doubt  tends  to  exclude  some 
who  are  obviously  insane,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
many  escape  detection,  and  that  some  come  in  through 
Canada  who  would  be  debarred  by  inspectors  at  Atlantic 
ports.2  Probably  there  is  a  much  larger  class  who  have 
been  out  of  insane  hospitals  in  Europe  only  a  few  months 
when  they  enter  the  United  States.  These  persons  are 
sane  enough  to  pass  the  ordinary  inspection ;  but,  failing 
to  find  employment  and  having  spent  their  money,  they 
become  ill-fed  and  soon  go  to  pieces;  after  which  they 
are  recommitted  here.3 

The  act  of  1891  added  to  the  excluded  classes  persons 
suffering  from  loathsome  or  dangerous  contagious  dis- 
eases. In  1903,  1773  persons  were  debarred  for  these 
causes.4  These  diseases  include  two  practically  unknown 
in  America  until  the  beginning  of  immigration  from 
southeastern  Europe  and  Asia,  favus  and  trachoma.  The 
former  is  an  affection  of  the  scalp ;  the  latter  a  disease  of 
the  eyes  and  eyelids,  which  if  not  cured  results  in  blind- 
ness. Other  diseases  causing  exclusion  are  small-pox, 

2  Senate  Reports,  57th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  No.  2119,  p.  243;  New 
York  Medical  Journal,  vol.  77,  p.  224  (Feb.  7,  1903). 

3  Report   of   the  Industrial   Commission,  vol.    15,   p.   236;   T. 
V.   Powderly,   in  North  American  Review,  vol.   175,  pp.  53-60, 
especially,  p.  54  (July,  1902). 

4  Cp.  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.    15,  pp.    126- 
132 ;    T.    V.     Powderly,    "  Immigration's    Menace    to    National 
Health,"  in  North  American  Review,  vol.  175,  pp.  53-60. 


Social  Conditions  of  Immigration        85 

cholera,5  tuberculosis,6  and  venereal  diseases.  Favus  and 
trachoma  have  attracted  most  attention  because  of  the 
difficulty  of  their  detection  and  the  serious  results  of  their 
domestication.  In  1904,  out  of  812,870  immigrants, 
1560  were  rejected  because  suffering  from  loathsome  or 
dangerous  diseases,  and  6440  were  treated  in  the  hospi- 
tals for  various  ailments. 

While  a  few  immigrants  are  thus  debarred  because 
of  diseases,  large  numbers  are  allowed  to  land  who  are 
poor  in  physique,  and  destined  shortly  to  develop  acute 
troubles.  In  the  majority  of  cases  it  is  impossible  to  de- 
tect incipient  cases  of  tuberculosis  among  the  steerage 
passengers  in  the  time  available  for  observation;  and 
there  are  many  immigrants,  not  actually  tuberculous 
when  they  land,  who  quickly  become  infected  through 
living  in  unsanitary  conditions  and  in  close  contact  with 
those  already  affected. 

The  number  of  "  diseased "  persons  in  certain  races 
of  recent  immigrants  for  the  year  1901  was  as  follows : T 


Slav  (Pole,  Slovak,  Croatian) 
Magyar 


Italian . 
Lithuanian . 
Hebrew .  .  . 

Finn 

Syrian .... 


in  7000 
6500 
3450 
1250 

1 100 
1000 

135 


8  As  to  the  proposition  to  suspend  immigration  entirely  in  1893 
during  the  epidemic  of  cholera  in  Europe,  see  W.  E.  Chandler, 
in  North  American  Review,  vol.  156,  pp.  1-8  (Jan.  1893)  ;  H.  C. 
Hansbrough,  ibid.,  pp.  220-227  (Feb.,  1893). 

6  Added  by  opinion  of  Commissioner-General,  May  4,  1901. 
See  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1901, 

p.  33- 

^  Dr.  Allan  McLaughlin,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  62, 
pp.  407-409  (Jan.,  1903). 


86  Immigration  and  Emigration 

The  ratio  for  the  same  year  of  immigrants  requiring 
hospital  treatment  on  arrival,  to  the  totals  landed,  was  as 
follows : 

Slav  I  in  300 


Magyar I 

Finn I 

Italian I 

Lithuanian I 

Hebrew I 

Syrian I 


250 
200 
185 
140 
100 
35 


Immigrants  certified  as  having  some  disability  grave 
enough  to  make  them  public  charges  or  dependent  upon 
some  one,  in  proportion  to  the  totals  landed,  for  the  same 
year  (1901)  were: 


Lithuanian  

I  ij 

i   1906 
664 
172 
163 
148 
42 
20 

Slav  

I 

Italian  

I 

Finn  

I 

Magyar  .       

I 

Hebrew  

I 

Svrian. 

I 

The  ratios  of  minor  defects  to  the  number  landed  for 
the  same  year  are  given  below.  These  defects,  although 
not  sufficient  to  ensure  rejection,  were  such  as  were 
likely  to  affect  the  immigrant's  chances  of  becoming  a 
public  charge,  e.g.,  poor  physique,  loss  of  an  eye  or  a 
finger,  anemia  and  the  like. 

Finn   .  I  in  81 


Slav i 

Lithuanian I 

Magyar I 

Italian I 

Syrian I 

Hebrew .  .  I 


65 
64 
40 
26 
24 
16 


It  will  be  observed  that  in  each  of  the  respects  noted 


Social  Conditions  of  Immigration        87 

in  these  tables,  Hebrews  8  and  Syrians  made  the  worst 
showing,  a  fact  of  serious  import  when  the  tendency  of 
Asiatic  immigration  from  the  Levant  to  increase  is  re- 
membered. It  will  also  be  noticed  that  the  immigrants 
of  poor  physique  are,  as  a  rule,  from  the  most  illiterate 
races,  and  are,  therefore,  beyond  the  reach  of  tracts  and 
circulars  relating  to  hygiene  and  tuberculosis.  The  fol- 
lowing table  supplements  those  given,  and  includes  the 
Irish  and  Scandinavians  by  way  of  comparison : 9 

Ratio  sent  to  Ratio  deported  on 

hospital  -on  arrival  medical  certificate 

RACE  to  total  landed  to  total  landed 

Hebrew I  to    90  I  to    393 

Italian I  "    177  I    "      535 

Slav I  "    200  i    '      575 

Irish i  "   645  I    "    1450 

Scandinavian I  "   715  I    "   3280 

The  present  condition  of  immigration  with  respect  to 
disease  has  been  well  summed  up  as  follows : 10  "  Good 
physique  was  much  more  general  among  immigrants  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago  than  among  the  immigrants  of 
to-day.  The  bulk  of  the  immigrants  previous  to  1880 
came  from  the  sturdy  races  of  northern  and  western 
Europe,  and,  not  only  was  good  physique  the  rule,  but 
loathsome,  communicable  or  contagious  disease  was 
extremely  rare.  .  .  .  With  the  change  in  the  racial 
character  of  immigration,  most  marked  in  the  past 
decade,  a  pronounced  deterioration  in  the  general 
physique  of  the  immigrants,  and  a  much  higher  per  cent. 

8  See  "  Health  and  Sanitation  of  the  Immigrant  Jewish  Popu- 
lation of  New  York"  by  Dr.  Maurice  Fishberg,  in  The  American 
Hebrew  (New  York  City),  July  25,  1902. 

9  Dr.  Allan  McLaughlin,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  64, 
P.  233  (Jan.    1904). 

10  Ibid. 


88  Immigration  and  Emigration 

of  loathsome  and  dangerous  disease  is  noticeable.  .  .  . 
The  immigrant  recorded  as  having  a  poor  physique  is 
usually  admitted." 


C.    DISTRIBUTION  OF  IMMIGRANTS11 

While  the  distribution  of  immigrants  after  their  arrival 
has  important  effects,  economic,  social,  and  political,  the 
fact  of  such  distribution  is  really  a  social  condition  of 
immigration  itself,  and  should,  therefore,  be  considered 
here.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  the  North 
Central  States  12  were  for  the  most  part  settled  by  the 
Teutonic  immigration  of  the  last  century,  and  that  the 
inhabitants  of  the  North  Atlantic  States  are  to-day  very 
largely  foreign-born.  This  tendency  of  immigrants  to 
settle  in  the  northern  parts  of  the  country  is  reflected  in 
the  census  returns  of  the  foreign-born.  Thus,  of  the 
10,356,644  foreign-born  in  the  United  States,  exclusive 
of  Alaska  and  Hawaii,  in  1900,  the  North  Atlantic  divi- 
sion contained  22.6  per  cent;  the  North  Central,  15.8  per 
cent. ;  and  the  Western  20.7  per  cent. ;  leaving  only  4.6 

11  For  the  general  figures  as  to  the  foreign-born  in  the  United 
States,  see  infra,  chapter  vi.     For  congestion  in  cities,  see  infra 
chapter  viii.,  F.     For  distribution  of  immigrants  as  a  remedy  for 
existing  evils,   see   infra,   chapter  xiii.,   A.      See   also   as   to  the 
agricultural  distribution  of  immigrants,  Report  of  the  Industrial 
Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  492-646. 

12  The  North  Atlantic  division  embraces  New  England,  New 
York,   New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania;   the  North  Central,  the 
States  from  Ohio  to  the  Dakotas  and  Kansas,  including  Missouri ; 
the  Western,  all  west  of  the  Dakotas,  Kansas,  and  Texas;  the 
South   Atlantic,   West   Virginia,   the   District  of   Columbia,   and 
all  the   States  south  of  Pennsylvania  which  touch  the  Atlantic 
coast;    the    South    Central,    the    remainder    of    the    Southern 
.States. 


Social  Conditions  of  Immigration        89 

per  cent,  for  the  South  Central  and  South  Atlantic  divi- 
sions combined.  That  the  same  tendency  was  at  work 
during  the  decade  preceding  1900  appears  from  the  fact 
that  four-fifths  of  the  whole  increase  in  the  foreign-born 
from  1890  to  1900  is  concentrated  in  the  North  Atlantic 
division.13 

This  tendency  to  concentration  is  still  more  apparent 
when  we  consider  the  increase  of  foreign-born  in  certain 
States,  as  shown  in  the  following  table: 

Per  cent,  of 
total  increase  in 
Number  United  States 

New    York 329,375  30.1 

Massachusetts 189,187  17.3 

Pennsylvania I39,S3O  12.8 

Illinois 124,400  11.4 

New   Jersey 102,909  9.4 

Connecticut 54,609  5.0 

TOTAL,  6  States 940,010  86.0 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  six  States  have  received 
more  than  four-fifths  of  the  increase ;  and  if  we  were 
to  look  within  those  States  we  should  see  a  still  larger 
relative  gain  in  the  important  cities.  Thus,  during  the 
decade,  the  foreign-born  population  of  Illinois  increased 
124,400,  while  that  of  Chicago  increased  136,446,  show- 

13  The  proportion  of  the  foreign-horn  in  the  various  geographi- 
cal divisions,  beginning  with  the  census  of  1850,  is  shown  in  the 
following  table,  from  the  Twelfth  Census  of  the  United  States, 
vol.  i,  p.  civ. : 


DIVISIONS. 
North     Atlantic  

1900 

1890 

1880 

1870 

1860 
48  o 

1850 

South     Atlantic    

2.6 

North    Central  

South    Central  

3.5 

5.6 

6.1 

Western  

8.2 

8-3 

7  •  5 

5.6 

United    States  

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

per 
cent, 

per 

cent. 

per 
cent. 

per 
cent. 

per 
cent. 

per 

cent. 

Immigration  and  Emigration 


ing   a   movement    toward    the    cities   within    the    State 
itself. 

That  this  general  tendency,  which  has  been  true  of 
immigration  in  the  past,  is  operating  to-day,  and  in  in- 
creasing proportions  is  also  clear.  The  destinations 
given  by  immigrants,  which  appear  upon  the  manifests, 
are  doubtless,  in  many  cases,  inaccurate.  Many  who  do 
not  know  where  they  will  go  give  as  their  destination  the 
port  of  landing  or  some  large  city ;  many  also  after  land- 
ing change  their  destination.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  sta- 
tistics of  destination  are  in  close  correspondence  with 
the  census.  Thus,  the  percentage  of  the  total  immigra- 
tion destined  for  the  four  States  of  Illinois,  Massachu- 
setts, New  York  and  Pennsylvania  has  been  in  recent 
years  as  follows: 

1895 72     per  cent 

1896 72 

1897 7i       "      " 

1898 68.9 

1899 68.7 

1900 68.8 

1901 69.5 

1902 67.8 

IQ03 65.4 

1904 64.6    "      " 

1905 65.3    ' 

On  the  other  hand,  the  percentage  of  the  total  immigra- 
tion for  the  Southern  and  Western  States  was  as  follows ; 

1896 ii     per  cent. 

1897 15       "      " 

1898 15-2 

1899 15-7 

1900 13.4 

1901 13-5 

1902 13.0 

1904 10.1 

1905 8.7 

When   we   consider  the   composition   of  the   popula- 


Social  Conditions  of  Immigration        91 

tion  in  the  various  divisions  of  the  United  States,  we 
find  14  that  but  a  small  proportion  of  the  races  which  form 
the  bulk  of  our  recent  immigration  are  in  the  un- 
settled regions  of  the  West  and  South.  Coming  as  they 
largely  do  on  prepaid  tickets,  and  to  join  friends  or  rela- 
tives, each  shipload  tends  to  follow  the  footsteps  of  those 
who  have  preceded  and  to  increase  the  concentration  in 
particular  localities.  Thus  it  appears  that  only  3.9  per 
cent,  of  the  Poles,  4.4  per  cent,  of  the  Hungarians  and 
8.7  per  cent,  of  the  Russians  (Jews)  live  in  the  Southern 
States  or  the  Western  division,  a  population  of  only 
58,471  scattered  among  a  total  of  nearly  29,000,000  souls. 
The  North  Atlantic  States  contain  only  one-third  of  the 
Germans  and  one-seventh  of  the  Scandinavians,  but  they 
have  over  seven-tenths  of  the  Hungarians,  Italians  and 
Russian  Jews. 

The  local  congestion  of  the  nationalities  coming  to  us 
in  the  largest  numbers  in  recent  years  is  another  sig- 
nificant feature  of  immigrant  distribution.  That  this 
congestion  is  increasing  is  shown  by  the  following 
table  of  the  increase  of  natives  of  certain  nationalities 

14  The  following  table  shows  the  distribution  of  various  na- 
tionalities for  1890  and  1900.  Eleventh  Census  of  the  United 
States,  Population,  Part  i,  p.  cxxxvi;  Twelfth  Census  of  the 
United  States,  vol.  i,  p.  clxxiv: 


North 
Atlantic 
1890    1900 

South 
Atlantic 
1890  1900 

North 
Central 
1890  1900 

South 
Central 
1890   1900 

Western 
1890   1900 

Great  Britain  and 

Ireland  ...      -59 

5  61 

6 

2 

5 

2-3 

-7 

6  25 

6 

2.4 

2.2 

7 

9 

8.1 

France  

•   36 

o  40 

6 

a 

3 

2-3 

34 

i   29 

4 

12.7 

II  .2 

14 

9 

16.5 

Germany  .   .    . 

•   32 

2  33 

2 

2 

9 

2.7 

5'i 

4  54 

0 

4-1 

4.1 

4 

3 

5-i 

Bohemia.  .   .    . 

.    10 

4  14 

I 

I 

4 

2.0 

84 

3   75 

8 

3-1 

6.9 

o 

8 

I  .2 

Scandinavia.  . 

.      12 

7   16 

6 

0 

3 

0-4 

76 

o  70 

9 

0.8 

i  .  i 

10 

o 

IO.9 

Austria  

49 

9  62 

o 

I 

7 

I  .4 

3  i 

8  25 

5 

8.4 

3  -7 

8 

i 

7.4 

Hungary  .  .  . 

•    72 

9  73 

o 

I 

8 

1.4 

j^ 

2    22 

6 

i-4 

1-3 

i 

6 

i-7 

Italy  

•    65 

o  72 

7 

2 

7 

2  .  2 

i  ^ 

O    II 

4 

6.7 

5-4 

i  3 

- 

8.3 

Poland  

•   38 

45' 

a 

I 

7 

i  .  7 

57 

o  44 

9 

i  .7 

i  .4 

i 

2 

0.8 

Russia  ..... 

..    50 

9  65 

9 

3 

2 

3-9 

3S 

2    25 

4 

i-5 

2.  I 

6 

I 

2-7 

92  Immigration  and  Emigration 

from   1890  to   1900,  in  the  several  geographical   divi- 
sions : 15 

North  South         North  South 

Atlantic        Atlantic     Central       Central      Western 

Hungary 73.0  1.2  22.9  1.2  1.7 

Italy 77.4  1.9  n.o  4.6  5.1 

Poland 59.1  1.7  37-3  1.2  0.7 

Russia 77.2  4.5  15.6  2.6  o.i 

The  North  Atlantic  States  thus  received  approximately 
three-fourths  of  the  increase  of  Hungarians,  Italians  and 
Russians  (Jews),  as  well  as  nearly  three-fifths  of  the 
Poles.  These  races  do  not  get  distributed  to  the  West  and 
South. 

Considering  certain  individual  States  the  foregoing  re- 
sult appears  more  striking,  as  the  following  compilations 
show: 

NATIVES  OF  POLAND 

In  1890,  there  were  in  this  country  147,440  persons 
born  in  Poland ;  in  1900,  there  were  383,407.  In  1890,  the 
three  Atlantic  States  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Massachusetts  had  34.6  per  cent,  of  the  natives  of  Poland 
in  the  country;  in  1900,  they  had  43.8  per  cent.  These 
three  States,  together  with  the  three  interior  States  of 
Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin,  had  76.9  per  cent, 
in  1890,  and  77.2  per  cent,  in  1900.  The  three  interior 
States  had  42.1  per  cent,  in  1890,  and  33.4  per  cent,  in 
1900. 

Almost  three-fifths  of  the  whole  increase  during  the 
decade  went  to  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  Illinois. 
Pennsylvania  received  21.7  per  cent.;  New  York  20  per 
cent.,  and  Illinois  16.6  per  cent.  Nine-tenths  of  the  in- 
crease in  Illinois  was  in  the  city  of  Chicago. 

15  Compiled  from  Eleventh  Census,  Population,  Part  I,  pp. 
606-609  (1890)  ;  Twelfth  Census,  vol.  i,  pp.  clxxii-clxxiv.  (1900), 


Social  Conditions  of  Immigration        93 


Number 
of  Poles 

New   York 22,718 

Pennsylvania 25,191 

Illinois 28,878 

Michigan 15,669 

Wisconsin 17,660 

Massachusetts 3,341 


TOTAL,  six  States.   113,457 


1890 


1900 

Per  cent. 

Per  cent. 

of  all 

Number 

of  all 

In  U.  S. 

of  Poles 

in  U.  S. 

15-4 

69,755 

18.2 

I7.I 

76,358 

19-9 

19-5 

67,949 

177 

10.6 

28,286 

7-4 

12.0 

31,789 

8-3 

2.3 

21,503 

5-7 

76.9 


295,640 


77-2 


NATIVES  OF  ITALY 

There  were  182,580  Italians  in  the  United  States  in 
1890,  and  484,703  in  1900.  The  number  in  certain  States 
in  each  of  these  years  was  as  follows: 


1890 


New  York. . . 
Pennsylvania . 
New  Jersey  . . 
Massachusetts 
Connecticut .  .  . 
Illinois .  . 


Number 
of  Italians 

64,141 

24,662 

12,989 

8,066 

5,285 

8,035 


TOTAL,  six  States.   123,178 


California . 
Louisiana . 
Ohio .  . 


15,495 
7,767 
3,857 


TOTAL,  three  States    27,119 


Per  cent 

of  all 
in  U.  S. 

35-1 

13-5 

7-1 

4-4 

2.9 

4-4 
674 

8.4 
4-2 

2.1 
14-7 


Number 
of  Italians 

182,248 
66,655 
41,865 
28,785 
19,105 
23,523 

362,l8l 

22,777 

17,431 
11,321 

51,529 


1900 

Per  cent. 

of  all 
in  U.  S. 

37-6 
13.8 
8.6 
5-9 
4.0 
4-8 

74-7 

4-7 
3-6 
2-3 

10.6 


From  the  foregoing  it  appears,  therefore,  that  the  five 
Atlantic  States  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey, 
Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut,  together  with  Illinois, 
contained  two-thirds  of  the  Italians  in  1890,  and  that  their 
share  had  risen  to  three-quarters,  in  1900.  The  three 
non-Atlantic  States  of  California,  Louisiana,  and  Ohio 


94  Immigration  and  Emigration 

contained  a  seventh  of  the  whole  in  1890;  but  in  1900 
their  share  had  fallen  to  hardly  more  than  a  tenth.  Four- 
fifths  of  the  increase  of  our  Italian-born  population  was 
in  the  six  States  first  mentioned. 

NATIVES  OF  RUSSIA 

In  1890,  there  were  182,644  natives  of  Russia  in  the 
United  States ;  in  1900,  424,096.  The  following  table 
shows  the  proportion  gathered  in  half  a  dozen  States : 

1890  1900 

Per  cent.  Per  cent. 

Number  of  all  Number  of  all 

of  Russians  in  U.  S.  of  Russians  in  U.  S. 

New   York 58,466  32.0  165,610  39.0 

Pennsylvania 17,315  9-5  5O,959  12.0 

Massachusetts 7,325  4.0  26,963  6.4 

New  Jersey 5,320  2.2  19,745  4-7 

Connecticut 3,027  1.7  11,404  2.9 

Illinois 8,407  4.6  28,707  6.8 


TOTAL,  six  States.     99,860  54.0  303,388  71.8 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  while  these  six  States 
had  54  per  cent,  of  all  the  natives  of  Russia  in  the  country 
in  1890,  they  had  71.6  per  cent,  in  1900. 

Of  the  increase  during  the  decade,  these  States  suf- 
fered 84.3  per  cent.  Nearly  two-thirds  of  the  natives 
of  Russia,  or  279,230,  were  found  in  the  North  Atlantic 
States  in  1900,  three-quarters  of  the  rest,  or  107,529, 
were  in  the  North  Central  States.  In  1880,  the  50  prin- 
cipal cities  of  the  country  contained  only  8967  natives 
of  Russia.  In  1890,  the  50  principal  cities  contained 
98,736.  In  1900,  the  50  principal  cities  contained  290,790. 

It  almost  goes  without  saying  that  the  occupation  of 
an  immigrant  has  much  to  do  with  his  destination. 
Thus,  mariners  seek  the  seaboard ;  nearly  one-eighth  of 
them  going  to  California,  and  one-tenth  to  New  Eng- 


Social  Conditions  of  Immigration        95 

land,  while  one-half  remain  in  New  York  State.  Of  the 
miners,  about  one-half  go  to  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and 
Illinois.  The  tailors,  mostly  Jews,  naturally  tend  to  the 
big  cities,  about  seven-eighths  of  them  being  destined  for 
Massachusetts,  New  York,  Pennsylvania  and  Illinois. 
These  instances  are  but  samples,  and  almost  any  occupa- 
tion illustrates  the  general  principle. 


PART   II 

THE  EFFECTS  OF  IMMIGRATION  ON 
THE  UNITED  STATES 


CHAPTER  VI 
RACIAL  EFFECTS  OF  IMMIGRATION 

A.     THE    IMPORTANCE    OF    RACE    STOCK 

THE  results  of  immigration  to  this  country  have  been 
of  the  greatest  importance,  extending  in  countless  ways 
and  in  many  directions,  and  affecting  the  fabric  of 
society  to  an  extent  of  which  the  average  citizen  little 
dreams.  From  one  point  of  view,  indeed,  the  history  of 
the  United  States  is  the  history  of  the  effects  of  European 
immigration.  How  valuable  this  has  been,  in  adding  to 
the  wealth  and  power  of  the  country,  everyone  knows 
and  gladly  acknowledges;  and  it  is  not  without  a  deep 
appreciation  of  the  fact  that  we  proceed  to  examine 
certain  effects,  especially  in  recent  years,  of  which  the 
value  is  less  obvious ;  which,  indeed,  constitute  a  real  and 
menacing  danger  to  our  institutions  and  organic  life. 

The  racial  effects  of  immigration  are  more  far-reach- 
ing and  potent  than  all  others.  The  government,  the 
state,  society,  industry,  the  political  party,  social  and 
political  ideals — all  are  concepts  and  conventions  created 
by  individual  men;  and  when  individuals  change  these 
change  with  them.  Recent  discoveries  in  biology  show 
that  in  the  long  run  heredity  is  far  more  important  than 
environment  or  education ;  for  though  the  latter  can  de- 
velop, it  cannot  create.  They  also  show  what  can  be 
done  in  a  few  years  in  altering  species,  and  in  producing 
new  ones  with  qualities  hitherto  unknown,  or  unknown 
in  combination. 

99 


ioo          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

At  the  present  time,  apart  from  education,  attempts 
to  improve  race  stocks  are  limited  to  two  directions.  The 
first,  universally  practiced,  is  the  segregation  and,  to  a 
slight  extent,  the  elimination  of  the  dependent  and  de- 
linquent classes.  Insane  and  dangerous  criminals  are 
more  or  less  successfully  segregated  and  prevented  from 
propagation  during  the  period  of  their  incarceration. 
But  against  this  benefit  must  be  set  the  fact  that  our 
charities,  and  even  our  penal  institutions,  keep  alive  lar^e 
numbers  whom  natural  forces  would  once  have  elimi- 
nated. Epidemics  which  once  carried  off  many  of  the 
best  citizens  also  removed  more  of  the  worst;  and  war 
still  removes  many  of  the  strongest.  To-day  the  feeble, 
the  anemic  live.  Furthermore,  many  of  our  prisoners 
and  insane,  detained  for  long  periods,  have  had  children 
before  their  segregation. 

The  first  method  of  improving  the  people  of  a  state 
is,  then,  segregation  within  its  limits.  The  second  method 
is  segregation  by  refusing  entrance  into  the  nation  from 
without.  Where  migration  small  in  numbers  takes  place 
between  nations  of  equal  age,  who  have  been  long  settled, 
this  method  is  less  important  than  the  first.  But  a  new 
nation  derives  its  whole  character  and  has  its  whole 
future  determined  by  its  first  settlers;  and  when  subse- 
quent immigration  takes  place  on  a  scale  large  in  relation 
to  the  total  population,  equally  far-reaching  changes  may 
be  made  in  the  nation's  institutions  and  ideals.  The  Rt. 
Hon.  Arthur  Balfour  has  pointed  out  that  our  beliefs 
and  purposes  are  little  dependent  upon  logic  or  intellec- 
tual information.  What  is  impressed  upon  two  men  will 
produce  widely  different  results,  according  to  the  way 
they  react  towards  it;  and  this  reaction  depends  upon 
those  vast,  vague  undercurrents  of  life,  as  Professor  Wil- 
liam James  calls  them,  little  understood,  often  hardly 


Racial  Effects  101 

noticed,  which  are  largely  determined  by  heredity.  Edu- 
cation, imitation  of  others,  will  do  much  to  produce 
outward  conformity,  but  racial  characteristics  will  with- 
stand the  influence  of  centuries. 

The  point  is  dwelt  upon  because,  although  the  value 
of  artificial  selection  in  breeding  animals,  in  producing 
seedless  fruits  and  new  grains — in  fact  in  nearly  every 
department  of  life — is  now  generally  recognized;  and 
although  some  advanced  persons  talk  of  regulating  mar- 
riage with  a  view  to  the  elimination  of  the  unfit  for  other 
purposes  than  mere  survival;  yet  most  people  fail  to 
realize  that  in  the  United  States,  through  our  power  to 
regulate  immigration,  we  have  a  unique  opportunity  to 
exercise  artificial  selection  on  an  enormous  scale.  We 
started  with  immigrants  of  the  best  stock  in  Europe, 
selected  naturally  by  the  perils  of  the  voyage  and  the 
hardships  of  life  in  a  new  country.  The  possible  danger 
from  too  careless  an  attitude  toward  the  selection  of  race 
stocks  for  the  future  population  of  this  country  is  thus 
stated  in  a  recent  article  by  Mr.  Eliot  Norton : * 

"  If  one  considers  the  American  people  from  say  1775 
to  1860,  it  is  clear  that  a  well-defined  national  character 
was  in  process  of  formation.  What  variations  there 
were,  were  all  of  the  same  type,  and  these  variations 
would  have  slowly  grown  less  and  less  marked.  It  needs 
little  study  to  see  of  what  great  value  to  any  body  of  men, 
women  and  children,  a  national  or  racial  type  is.  It  fur- 
nishes a  standard  of  conduct  by  which  anyone  can  set  his 
course.  The  world  is  a  difficult  place  in  which  to  live, 
and  to  establish  moral  standards  has  been  one  of  the 
chief  occupations  of  mankind.  Without  such  standards, 
man  feels  as  a  mariner  without  a  compass.  Religions, 
rules,  laws  and  customs  are  only  the  national  character 

1  In  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science,  voL  24,  p.  163  (July,  1904). 


The  Effects  of  Immigration 

in  the  form  of  standards  of  conduct.  Now  national  char- 
acter can  only  be  formed  in  a  population  which  is  stable. 
The  repeated  introduction  into  a  body  of  men,  of  other 
men  of  different  type  or  types,  cannot  but  tend  to  pre- 
vent its  formation.  Thus  the  nineteen  millions  of  immi- 
grants that  have  landed  have  tended  to  break  up  the  type 
which  was  forming,  and  to  make  the  formation  of  any 
other  type  difficult.  Every  million  more  will  only 
intensify  this  result,  and  the  absence  of  a  national  charac- 
ter is  a  loss  to  every  man,  woman  and  child.  It  will  show 
itself  in  our  religions,  rules  of  conduct,  in  our  laws,  in 
our  customs." 

In  the  United  States  we  have  the  opportunity  to  try 
the  effect  of  hybridization  upon  an  enormous  scale.  The 
question  as  to  the  racial  effects  of  immigration  is  not,  as 
most  people  assume,  a  question  between  us  and  the  im- 
migrants, but  between  our  children  and  grandchildren 
and  theirs.  We  are  trustees  for  the  future,  and  with  us 
is  the  decision  what  races  and  what  kind  of  men  shall 
inherit  this  country  for  years  after  we  are  gone. 

Such  being  the  opportunities  and  the  dangers  of  a 
change  of  race-stocks,  we  have  now  to  consider  how  far 
the  dangers  are  real. 

B.       EFFECTS    OF   THE    CHANGES    IN    THE    NATIONALITY   OF 
IMMIGRANTS  2 

Immigration  may  affect  the  races  already  here  in  two 
ways ;  first,  by  those  whom  it  introduces,  and  second,  by 
those  whom  it  prevents  being  introduced.  The  second 
class  may  be  still  further  divided  into  those  prevented 
from  coming  to  us  from,  abroad,  and  the  vastly  more 
numerous  and  important  division  of  those  who  are  never 
born  here  at  all  because  of  immigration.  According  to 

2  For  much  of  what  follows  the  author  is  indebted  to  the  article 
of  Gustave  Michaud,  in  Century,  vol.  65,  pp.  682-692,  (Mar.  1903). 


Racial  Effects  103 

the  census  in  1900,  less  than  one-half  of  our  white  popu- 
lation consists  of  immigrants  who  landed  before  1835  and 
their  descendants.  Up  to  1890  this  part  of  the  population 
was  still  in  the  majority,  but  since  then  it  has  been  rapidly 
falling  in  importance,  both  from  the  new  arrivals  and  the 
decline  of  the  native  stock.  As  we  have  seen,  immigra- 
tion during  the  colonial  period  and  up  to  1835  was  almost 
exclusively  Teutonic  and  Keltic.  Under  the  classifica- 
tion adopted  by  the  Immigration  Bureau,  the  proportion 
of  the  various  race  divisions  in  the  immigration  of  1904 
was :  Slavic,  33.5  per  cent. ;  Teutonic,  24.0  per  cent. ; 
Iberic,  22.9  per  cent.;  Keltic,  12.1;  Mongolic,  2.5  per 
cent. ;  and  all  others,  4.8  per  cent.3  From  this  it  appears 
that  the  Teutonic  and  Keltic  immigration  amounts  to 
only  a  little  over  one-third  of  the  total  immigration.4 

The  increase  in  immigrants  from  southern  and  east- 
ern Europe  and  the  diminution  in  those  from  northern 
and  western  Europe,  may  also  be  expressed  in  terms 

3  This  classification  is  by  no  means  ideal.  "  Slavic "  includes 
Hebrews,  and  "  Keltic "  includes  peoples  as  diverse  as  Scotch, 
French,  and  Northern  Italians.  See  Dr.  K.  H.  Claghorn,  in  Out- 
look, vol.  13,  p.  453  (Feb.  4,  1905)  ;  W.  Z.  Ripley,  Races  of 
Europe. 

*  The  ordinary  classification  of  the  immigration  reports  are 
those  of  nationality  and  of  "  race,"  the  latter  being  chiefly  based 
on  language.  As  Dr.  Michaud  has  pointed  out,  the  language  and 
nationality  of  an  immigrant  chiefly  indicate  acquired  habits  and 
characteristics,  while  a  true  racial  classification  tells  of  the 
inherited  tendencies  which  are  likely  to  be  developed  in  his 
descendants.  Most  ethnologists  are  agreed  upon  a  three-fold 
division  of  the  Caucasian  race,  namely,  into  the  Baltic  race, 
occupying  Scandinavia,  Great  Britain,  northern  Germany  and 
parts  of  France,  Central  Europe  and  Russia;  the  Alpine,  occupy- 
ing the  mountain-ranges  of  Central  and  Southern  Europe  and 
some  of  the  plateaus  of  Western  Asia;  and  the  Mediterranean, 
formerly  widely  spread,  but  to-day  occupying  Southern  Europe. 

The  Baltic  race  is  probably  descended  from  the  early  Medi- 


IO4          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

of  races,  as  follows.  For  the  period  from  1835  to 
1890,  the  Baltic  furnished  87  per  cent.,  the  Alpine 
10  per  cent.,  and  the  Mediterranean  3  per  cent,  of 
the  total  immigration.  For  the  decade  from  1890  to 
1900,  the  Baltic  furnished  53  per  cent.,  the  Alpine  32 
per  cent,  and  the  Mediterranean  15  per  cent.  For 
the  two  fiscal  years  1901  and  1902,  the  Baltic  fur- 
nished 35  per  cent.,  the  Alpine  42  per  cent.,  and  the 
Mediterranean  23  per  cent.  It  therefore  appears  that 
during  1901-2,  as  compared  with  1835-90,  the  Mediter- 
ranean has  increased  7  times,  the  Alpine  over  4  times, 
while  the  Baltic  has  fallen  to  less  than  one-half.  It  also 
appears  that,  since  1900,  the  Baltic  has  been  losing  the 
commanding  position  in  the  total  immigration,  which 
has  been  assumed  by  the  Alpine ;  and  that  in  recent  years 
the  Mediterranean  has  been  increasing  faster  than  the 
Alpine,  and  is  likely  to  increase  still  faster  in  the  future. 
It  is  also  evident  that  if  the  diminution  in  the  Baltic  immi- 

terranean,  and  its  energy  and  resourcefulness  may  be  the  result 
of  natural  selection — in  high  latitudes.  It  represents,  therefore, 
a  picked  stock  distinguished  by  many  valuable  qualities.  These 
people  have  long  and  narrow  skulls,  blue  eyes,  and  light  hair; 
they  are  fond  of  work,  enterprising  and  ingenious,  with  a  high 
regard  for  neatness  and  order.  They  are  also  distinguished  for 
courage  and  have  generally  made  good  soldiers.  The  Alpine 
race  has  a  broad  and  short  skull,  grey  eyes  and  brown  hair. 
They  vary  in  height,  but  are  usually  solid  and  of  heavy  weight. 
They  are  not  so  given  to  action  as  the  Baltic  race,  and  are  not 
artistic  like  the  Mediterranean  race,  but  are  fond  of  intellectual 
pursuits  and  of  philosophy.  On  account  of  these  latter  char- 
acteristics they  are  more  individualistic  and  do  not  co-operate 
practically  in  civic  matters  as  well  as  those  of  the  Baltic  race. 
In  their  living  and  dress  they  affect  simplicity  and  are  not  as 
fond  of  fashion  as  their  northern  neighbors.  The  Mediterranean 
race  are  dolichocephalic  like  the  Baltic,  but  are  short  and  slender 
with  dark  hair  and  eyes.  They,  are  enthusiastic,  fond  of  art  and 
music,  and  distinguished  by  courtesy  and  fine  manners. 


Racial  Effects  105 

gration  continues  at  the  present  rate,  it  will  soon  cease 
to  be  a  factor  of  any  importance.  As  has  been  pointed 
out  elsewhere,  recent  immigration  is  not  of  the  same 
quality  it  once  was.  This  is  probably  true  of  the  immi- 
grants from  all  races ;  yet  this  factor  works  unequally 
because  the  less  desirable  elements  of  the  Baltic  race  are, 
on  the  whole,  nearer  the  average  of  their  race  than  the 
lower  classes  of  the  Alpine  and  Mediterranean.  Conse- 
quently, the  increase  in  immigration  of  the  latter 
nationalities  will  probably  mean,  not  merely  a  change  of 
race  but  a  change  in  average  quality.  This  process, 
moreover,  has  a  cumulative  effect;  for  immigrants  who 
come  from  a  low  order  of  society,  no  matter  of  what 
race,  tend  to  deter  the  more  desirable  of  the  same  race 
from  attempting  to  compete  with  them  in  a  new  country. 
Apart  from  this  deterioration,  the  most  likely  effects 
of  the  change  in  immigration  will  be  as  follows:  the 
skull  will  become  more  of  the  brachio-cephalic  type,  the 
average  stature  will  be  lower  and  the  average  complexion 
will  be  darker.  Dr.  Michaud  states  that  these  changes 
are  already  taking  place  on  a  large  scale  in  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  and  especially  in  Massachusetts.  He  also 
makes  the  following  prediction :  5 

"  Mental  changes  keep  pace  with  these,  and  will  be 
most  noticeable  after  the  descendants  of  our  present 
immigrants  have  identified  themselves  a  degree  with 
American  politics,  literature,  science  and  art.  The  most 
conclusive  of  these,  perhaps,  will  be  a  decline  of  that 
enterprising  spirit  which  has  been  called  the  American 
push.  Both  the  Alpine  and  the  Mediterranean — the  first 
more  than  the  latter — will  contribute  to  bring  about  that 
undesirable  result.  A  restless  mind,  ever  on  the  watch 
for  opportunities  and  improvements,  is  characteristic  of 
the  British  people,  but  it  is  found  to  a  higher  degree 

6  In  Century,  vol.  65,  p.  688  (Mar.    1903). 


io6          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

among1  the  Baltic  race  than  among  the  European 
branches  of  the  same  race.  The  artificial  selec- 
tion practised  at  the  time  of  the  emigration  of 
primitive  Baltic  stock  by  the  circumstances  attending 
that  emigration  is  the  cause  of  that  difference  which 
manifests  itself  to-day  in  a  thousand  different  ways. 
During  the  i6th,  i/th,  i8th  and  part  of  the  iQth  cen- 
turies, the  voyage  from  Europe  to  America  was  long, 
perilous,  and  had  many  sufferings  in  store  for  those  who 
undertook  it.  As  a  result,  the  average  of  those  who 
chose  to  depart  were  gifted  with  a  more  enterprising 
spirit  than  the  average  of  those  who  chose  to  remain. 
That  the  newcomers  cannot  possess  that  spirit  to  the 
same  degree  results  from  two  facts ;  they  do  not  belong 
to  the  Baltic  race  and  the  voyage  from  Europe  to  Amer- 
ica is  no  longer  fraught  with  danger  and  uncertainty." 

On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  Michaud  thinks  that  stronger 
family  ties,  a  lessening  of  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  and  a 
greater  love  for  abstract  knowledge  will  come  with  the 
Alpine  immigrants  of  the  future ;  and  that  the  Mediter- 
ranean stock  will  be  likely  to  increase  our  love  of  art  and 
our  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  in  all  its  forms.  It 
should  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  these  desirable 
qualities  can  be  obtained  by  admitting  only  the  best  speci- 
mens of  the  newer  races,  and  that  to  obtain  them  all 
it  is  quite  unnecessary  to  subject  the  nation  to  the  bur- 
den of  delinquents,  dependents  and  the  unprogressive 
elements. 

When  we  turn  to  the  second  important  racial  effect  of 
immigration,  its  power  to  prevent  new  arrivals — we 
touch  a  consideration  of  overwhelming  significance,  for 
this  alters  not  merely  the  quality  of  material  to  be  assimi- 
lated, but  the  very  power  of  assimilation  itself.  Attention 
has  already  been  drawn  to  the  fact  that  the  immigration 
of  low  types  has  a  tendency  to  prevent  the  immigration 
of  better  from  the  same  or  other  races.  It  is  well  known 


Racial  Effects  107 

that  after  immigration  from  southern  and  eastern  Europe 
began  to  be  appreciable  in  1880,  large  numbers  of  Ger- 
man emigrants  were  diverted  to  South  America  and  other 
places,  and  that  British  emigrants  began  to  seek  new 
homes  in  Canada,  Australia  and  South  Africa.  Inquiry 
confirms  the  belief  that  the  more  enterprising  and  desir- 
able emigrants  are  unwilling  to  go  to  a  country  where 
they  are  obliged  to  compete  with  the  lowest  grade  of 
labor.  As  soon  as  the  displacement  of  the  Germans  and 
Irish  in  the  mining  regions  of  Pennsylvania  became 
known  in  Europe,  it  tended  to  check  the  emigration  of 
their  countrymen  to  those  regions.  It  is  still  cheaper 
to  go  to  the  United  States  than  to  many  places  now  more 
eagerly  sought  by  the  better  class  of  emigrants.  But  the 
additional  price  is  paid  because  the  emigrants  know  that 
their  condition  and  prospects  will  be  better  in  a  land 
where  the  padrone  system  and  the  sweat  shop  are  less 
largely  developed.  Streams  of  emigration,  long  directed 
to  any  land  tend  to  wear  channels  in  which  still  more 
emigration  will  flow. 

The  most  important  of  all  the  effects  of  immigration, 
however,  is  that  of  preventing  additions  to  the  population 
from  our  own  stock.  This  point,  until  recently,  has  re- 
ceived little  attention.  General  Francis  A.  Walker,  super- 
intendent of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  censuses  of  the  United 
States,  was  one  of  the  first  to  call  attention  to  its  danger. 
He  says : 6 

"  Space  would  not  serve  for  the  full  statistical  demon- 
stration of  the  proposition  that  immigration,  during  the 

6  Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics,  vol.  2,  pp.  440- 
441.  Cp.  Sydney  G.  Fisher,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol. 
48,  pp.  244-255  (Dec.  1895)  ;  Prof.  John  R.  Commons,  in  Chau- 
tauquan,  vol.  39,  pp.  217-218  (May,  1904)  ;  Census  Bulletin,  No. 

22    (1005). 


io8          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

period  from  1830  to  1860,  instead  of  constituting1  a  net 
re-enforcement  to  the  population,  simply  resulted  in  a 
replacement  of  native  by  foreign  elements ;  but  I  be- 
lieve it  would  be  practicable  to  prove  this  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  every  fair-minded  man.  Let  it  suffice  to  state  a 
few  matters  which  are  beyond  controversy. 

"  The  population  of  1790  was  almost  wholly  a  native 
and  wholly  an  acclimated  population,  and  for  forty  years 
afterwards  immigration  remained  at  so  low  a  rate  as  to 
be  practically  of  no  account ;  yet  the  people  of  the  United 
States  increased  in  numbers  more  rapidly  than  has  ever 
elsewhere  been  known,  in  regard  to  any  considerable 
population,  over  any  considerable  area,  through  any 
considerable  period  of  time.  Between  1790  and  1830 
the  nation  grew  from  less  than  4,000,000  to  nearly 
13,000,000, — an  increase,  in  fact,  of  227  per  cent.,  a 
rate  unparalleled  in  history.  That  increase  was  wholly 
out  of  the  loins  of  our  own  people.  Each  decade  had  seen 
a  growth  of  between  33  and  38  per  cent.,  a  doubling  once 
in  twenty-two  or  twenty-three  years.  During  the  thirty 
years  which  followed  1830,  the  conditions  of  life  and  re- 
production in  the  United  States  were  not  less,  but  more, 
favorable  than  in  the  preceding  period.  Important 
changes  relating  to  the  practice  of  medicine,  the  food  and 
clothing  of  people,  the  general  habits  of  living,  took 
place,  which  were  of  a  nature  to  increase  the  vitality 
and  reproductive  capability  of  the  American  people. 
Throughout  this  period,  the  standard  of  height,  of 
weight,  and  of  chest  measurement  was  steadily  rising, 
with  the  result  that,  of  the  men  of  all  nationalities  in  the 
giant  army  formed  to  suppress  the  slave-holders'  re- 
bellion, the  native  American  bore  off  the  palm  in  respect 
to  physical  stature.  The  decline  of  this  rate  of  increase 
among  Americans  began  at  the  very  time  when  foreign 
immigration  first  assumed  considerable  proportions ;  it 
showed  itself  first  and  in  the  highest  degree  in  those 
regions,  in  those  States,  and  in  the  very  counties  into 
which  the  foreigners  most  largely  entered'.  It  proceeded 
for  a  long  time  in  such  a  way  as  absolutely  to  offset  the 
foreign  arrivals,  so  that  in  1850,  in  spite  of  the  incoming 
of  two  and  a  half  millions  of  foreigners  during  the  thirty 


Racial  Effects  109 

years,  our  population  differed  by  less  than  ten  thousand 
from  the  population  which  would  have  existed,  accord- 
ing to  the  previous  rate  of  increase,  without  re-enforce- 
ment from  abroad.  These  three  facts,  which  might  be 
shown  by  tables  and  diagrams,  constitute  a  statistical 
demonstration  such  as  is  rarely  attained  in  regard  to  the 
operation  of  any  social  or  economic  force." 

Of  course  the  falling  of  a  birth  rate  may  be  due  to 
many  causes ;  but,  in  general,  it  is  the  result  of  the  desire 
for  the  "  concentration  of  advantages."  In  an  old  coun- 
try, where  pressure  of  population  is  felt  and  the  wealth 
of  the  country  is  limited — as  in  England,  France  and 
Germany — concentration  of  advantages  may  be  necessary 
to  maintain  the  social  status  of  families  in  the  condition 
to  which  they  have  been  accustomed.  In  England  this 
has  been  accomplished  by  primo-geniture  and  the  prac- 
tice of  younger  members  of  families  to  seek  their  fortunes 
in  other  lands.  Hence — although  the  birth  rate  has 
not  fallen  as  much  as  it  otherwise  would — the  pressure 
of  population  is  relieved,  and  wealth,  sufficient  to  sup- 
port small  families,  is  conserved  and  handed  from  one 
generation  to  another.  In  France,  a  country  never 
characterized  by  great  colonization,  the  same  result  has 
been  attained  through  voluntary  limitation  of  the  size  of 
families ;  an  idea  that  has  been  carried  to  so  great  an 
extent  that  the  population,  as  is  well  known,  has  remained 
at  times  very  largely  stationary.  The  United  States,  on 
the  other  hand,  has  always  been  a  country  of  immense 
natural  resources,  which,  even  at  the  present  time,  is  far 
from  completely  exploited,  and  where  the  opportunities 
for  acquisition  of  wealth  have  been  unparalleled.  There 
have  never  been  in  the  United  States  the  same  reasons 
for  accomplishing  the  "  concentration  of  advantages," 
by  means  of  an  artificial  lowering  of  the  birth  rate,  which 
have  obtained  in  European  countries. 


no          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

In  the  United  States  the  controlling  reason  which  re- 
duced the  birth  rate  seems  to  have  been  the  social  one. 
Consider  for  a  moment  the  typical  town  of  one  hundred 
years  ago.  The  boys  of  the  village  drove  the  omnibus, 
tended  the  store,  hired  themselves  for  labor  in  the  fields. 
Everybody  knew  everybody  else,  and  though  the  judge, 
the  minister  and  the  doctor,  owing  to  their  better  educa- 
tion, had  a  certain  pre-eminence,  society  in  general,  was 
comparatively  homogeneous.  But  from  the  moment 
immigration  began,  this  condition  was  broken  in  upon. 
The  earlier  immigrants  from  Ireland  and  Germany,  who 
came  in  the  forties  to  escape  famine  and  political  oppres- 
sion, were,  for  the  most  part,  unskilled  and  incapable  of 
any  but  the  simpler  kinds  of  manual  labor.  At  first  they 
were  regarded  as  curiosities  in  the  towns  where  they 
settled.  They  went  more  or  less  by  themselves,  and  did 
not  enter  into  the  existing  clubs  and  amusements.  As  the 
factory  system  developed,  and  machinery  made  possible 
the  employment  of  a  grade  of  labor  far  inferior  in 
education  and  skill  to  the  old  handiworker  of  the  crafts, 
the  immigrants  went  largely  into  the  factories.  Poor, 
they  lived  in  the  cheapest  locations  and  in  the  most  frugal 
way.  Gradually  the  natives  withdrew  from  social  contact 
with  them;  the  girls  disliked  to  work  with  them  in  the 
factory  or  in  domestic  service,  and  the  boys  were  unwill- 
ing to  be  with  them  in  the  fields  and  the  mills.  In  most 
cases  this  was  not  a  matter  of  mere  race  prejudice;  it 
arose  from  the  fact  that  the  intelligence  and  standards  of 
the  newcomers  were  different  from  and  inferior  to  those 
of  the  natives.  The  result  of  this  dislike  was,  necessarily, 
that  the  natives  and  their  children  wished  to  confine 
themselves  to  occupations  which  the  immigrants  had  not 
yet  invaded ;  and  these  occupations  were,  of  course,  those 
requiring  more  capital  either  in  money  or  in  education. 


Racial  Effects  in 

Girls  no  longer  went  out  to  service,  but  took  up  book- 
keeping or  work  in  certain  kinds  of  stores;  the  boys 
were  sent  to  high  school,  or,  if  possible,  to  college.  To 
fit  children  for  these,  however,  required  capital,  and  this 
involved  some  method  for  the  further  concentration  of 
advantages.  As  the  country  was  not  overcrowded,  and 
the  material  resources  still  remained  as  great  as  those  of 
any  other  in  the  world,  nothing  was  to  be  gained  by 
emigration — although  it  is  probable  that  not  a  little  of 
the  movement  from  the  Eastern  to  the  Western  States 
was  stimulated  by  the  arrival  of  new  immigrants  on  the 
Atlantic  border.  In  most  cases,  however,  emigration  was 
not  practicable ;  and  the  easiest  course  in  order  to  obtain 
special  advantages  was  for  the  family  to  limit  its  num- 
bers. The  result  was  that  the  natives  did  not  marry,  or 
married  later ;  and  in  case  of  marriage,  voluntarily  limited 
the  size  of  their  families.7  In  the  latter  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century  this  position  was  further  accelerated 
by  the  movement  toward  the  cities,  in  which  the  young 
men  played  the  leading  part,  leaving  the  girls  at  home 
upon  the  farms,  and  diminishing  their  opportunity  for 
marriage. 

That  this  is  no  flight  of  the  imagination,  but  an  actual 
description  of  what  has  happened  and  is  still  happening 
to-day,  is  testified  to  by  many  students  of  the  question. 
The  writer  has  personally  inquired  as  to  the  cause  of  the 

T  Census  Bulletin,  No.  22,  p.  17  (1905),  gives  the  number  of 
white  children  under  5  years  of  age  to  1,000  white  females  15 
to  49  years  of  age,  for  the  Continental  United  States  as  follows : 

1830 781 

1840 744 

1850 613 

1860 627 

1870 562 

1880 537 

1890 473 

1900 465 


ii2  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

small  families  in  various  parts  of  our  Eastern  States, 
and  has  been  repeatedly  told  by  parents  that  this  social 
reason  was  the  important  one  in  their  own  case.  Dr. 
Roberts  and  Dr.  Warne  report  the  same  thing  in  the 
mining  regions  of  Pennsylvania.  Confirmation  of  this 
explanation  of  the  falling  of  the  birth  rate,  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  the  same  cause  is  tending  to  operate  in 
the  case  of  the  earlier  Teutonic  and  Keltic  immigrants, 
in  order  to  enable  them  to  keep  their  position  as  against 
the  newer  Iberic  and  Slavic  immigrants.  Of  course,  in 
more  recent  years  luxury  has  increased,  and  the  desire 
for  material  advantages  probably  plays  a  larger  part  in 
this  process  to-day  than  it  did  at  the  time  of  the  first 
considerable  immigration.  In  other  words:  there  is 
to-day  not  merely  the  desire  to  escape  from  contact  with 
the  lower  social  class,  but  to  ape  the  habits  and  customs 
of  a  higher  social  class ;  but  in  both  cases  the  result 
has  come  about  through  the  disturbance  of  the  original 
homogeneity  by  the  introduction  of  different  social 
elements.8 
A  very  thorough  study  of  the  native  birth  rate  has  been 

8  Gen.  Walker  says,  Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics, 
vol.  2,  pp.  417-426: 

"  The  American  shrank  from  the  industrial  competition  thus 
thrust  upon  him.  He  was  unwilling  himself  to  engage  in  the 
lowest  kind  of  day  labor  with  these  new  elements  of  population ; 
he  was  even  more  unwilling  to  bring  sons  and  daughters  into  the 
world  to  enter  into  that  competition.  .  .  .  The  great  fact 
protrudes  through  all  the  subsequent  history  of  our  population 
that  the  more  rapidly  foreigners  came  into  the  United  States, 
the  smaller  was  the  rate  of  increase,  not  merely  among  the 
native  population,  but  throughout  the  population  of  the  country 
as  a  whole,  including  the  foreigners.  ...  If  the  foregoing 
views  are  true,  or  contain  any  considerable  degree  of  truth, 
foreign  immigration  into  this  country  has,  from  the  time  it  as- 
sumed large  proportions,  amounted  not  to  a  re-enforcement  of 


Racial   Effects  113 

made  by  R.  R.  Kuczynski  for  the  State  of  Massachusetts.9 
He  finds  that  the  marriage  rate  among  the  natives  is 
much  smaller  than  among  the  foreign-born  for  all  ages 
up  to  45 ;  that  the  proportion  of  married  natives  is 
smaller  than  among  the  foreign-born,  especially  at  the 
most  fruitful  periods  of  life;  and  that  the  foreign-born 
have  a  larger  number  of  children.10  His  conclusion  is 
that  probably  the  native  population  cannot  hold  its  own, 
and  that  it  seems  to  be  dying  out.  It  has  also  been 

our  population,  but  to  a  replacement  of  native  by  foreign 
stock." 

The  Industrial  Commission  says  also  in  its  report,  vol.  15,  p. 
277 :  "  It  is  a  hasty  assumption  which  holds  that  immigration 
during  the  nineteenth  century  has  increased  the  total  population." 

9  Quarterly   Journal   of  Economics,  vol.    16,   pp.    1-36    (Nov. 
1901),  and  pp.  141-186  (Feb.    1902). 

10  The  marriage  rate  of  unmarried  males  15  years  and  older  is : 
native-born  47.7;  foreign-born  68.9;  and  of  females,  native-born 
40;   foreign-born  56.8.     Among  the  natives  3-15  of  the  married 
women  have  never  had  children,  as  compared  with  2-15  among 
the  foreigners.     The  birth  rate  among  married  women  of  child- 
bearing  age  is:  142.5  per  thousand  for  natives,  and  251.8  for  the 
foreign-born.     For  the  period   1885-1897  the  marriage  rate  and 
the  proportion  of  married  women  decreased  with  natives   and 
increased  with  foreigners.     The  average  number  of  children  born 
to  every  foreign-born  married  woman  at  the  census  of  1885  was 
2-3  higher  than  for  the  natives.  Among  the  German  women  it  was 
4-7  higher  than  for  the  natives;   among  the  Irish  women  6-7 
higher;  and  among  the  French-Canadian  women  twice  as  high. 
The  average  number  of  children  living  for  every  married  woman 
was  3-5  higher  among  the  foreign-born  than  among  the  natives. 
It  was  more  than  1-2  higher  for  the  women  born  in  Germany; 
2-3  higher  for  the  Irish  women,  and  nearly  twice  as  high  for  the 
French-Canadians.     Taken  with  the  fact  that  the  proportion  of 
the  single  among  adult  natives  was  over  6-15,  and  among  the 
foreign-born,  less  than  5-15,  while  it  was  not  much  less  than  1-2 
among  natives  in  Massachusetts,  only  1-4  for  natives  in  other  New 
England  States,  and  only  2-11  for  the  women  born  in  Germany, 


H4  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

stated  n  that  at  the  present  time  the  excess  of  deaths 
over  births  in  New  England  for  those  whose  mothers 
were  native-born  is  1.5  per  1000  population.  This,  how- 
ever, is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  native 
stock  have  moved  away  and  bred  outside  of  New  Eng- 
land, leaving  the  rural  parts  of  the  country  peopled  by 
the  old  and  quite  young.  The  same  writer  also  is  of  the 
opinion  that,  comparing  the  native-born  with  the  Irish, 
the  average  annual  excess  of  births  over  deaths  during 
the  ten  years  following  1890,  for  those  born  here  of  Irish 
mothers,  was  11.2  per  thousand;12  for  those  born  of 
native  American  mothers,  16  per  thousand. 

The  foregoing  conclusions  are  reinforced  by  a  recent 
investigation  by  Professor  Walter  F.  Willcox  made  for 
the  Census  Bureau.13  He  finds  a  marked  falling  of  the 
general  birth  rate  in  this  country,  especially  in  the  North 

this  makes  the  adult  native  women  in  Massachusetts  appear  even 
less  prolific.  It  appears  also  that,  in  the  period  from  1883  to 
1897,  the  marriage  rate  of  the  foreign -born  adult  men  was  1-9 
more,  and  that  of  the  women  3-10  more,  than  that  of  the  adult 
natives.  The  birth  rate  during  the  same  period  for  the  adult 
foreign-born  was  more  than  twice  as  high  as  that  for  the  natives. 

11  Letter  of  Dr.  E.  E.   Cornwall,  New  York  Daily  Tribune, 
Mar.  30,  1903. 

12  He  also  says  that  the  average  age  at  death  of  native  whites 
born  of  native  American  mothers  was  36  years,  and  of  native 
whites  of  foreign  mothers,   15  years,  showing  that  mortality  is 
greater  among  children  of  the   foreign-born  than  among  those 
of    the    natives.      Increased    sanitation    and   attention    to    public 
hygiene,   especially  in  the  large  cities,  are  doing  something  to 
offset   the   conditions   causing  infant  mortality  in   those  places. 
If  this  betterment  should  increase  on  a  large  scale,  the  advantage 
of   the   native   population    owing   to    increased    infant   mortality 
among   the   descendants   of  the   foreign-born,   would  be   largely 
taken  away,  and  the  higher  birth  rate  of  the  foreign-born  would 
tend  to  give  that  element  increasing  advantage. 

13  Census  Bulletin,  No.  22  (1905). 


Racial   Effects  115 

and  East,  and  he  notes  the  same  large  difference  in  birth 
rate  in  favor  of  the  foreign-born.  Thus,  in  1900,  the 
number  of  native  white  children  under  five  years  of  age, 
in  proportion  to  1000  females  15  to  44  years  of  age,  was 
as  follows:  for  cities  of  25,000  or  more  inhabitants,  na- 
tive mothers  296,  foreign  mothers  612 ;  for  smaller  cities 
and  the  country  districts,  native  mothers  522,  foreign 
mothers  841. u 

That  the  native  birth  rate  is  falling  is  also  confirmed 
by  the  report  of  the  president  of  Harvard  College  for 
igo2.15  This  shows  that  out  of  88 1  graduates  of  the 
classes  of  1872-1877  inclusive,  634  were  married  and  had 
surviving  1262  children.  In  other  words,  28  per  cent, 
of  the  members  of  these  classes  were  unmarried  in  1902, 
and  those  who  were  married  had,  on  the  average,  only 
two  surviving  children ;  so  that  the  married  pairs  did  no 
more  than  just  reproduce  themselves.  In  part  no  doubt 
this  is  due  to  the  period  of  preparation  by  educated 
young  men  for  professional  occupations,  a  fact  which 
causes  them  to  marry  at  twenty-nine  or  thirty  when  they 
should  marry  at  twenty-five,  and  as  young  men  of  the 
same  social  class,  a  hundred  years  ago,  would  have  mar- 
ried at  twenty.  Considering  the  average  number  of 
children  for  the  graduates  of  other  colleges  we  find  a 
progressive  decrease.  Thus  the  average  size  of  families 
of  graduates  of  Middlebury  College  in  the  period  1803- 
1807  was  5.6.  From  this  time  there  was  a  steady  diminu- 
tion to  2.3  for  the  period  1870-1874,  and  1.8  for  the 
period  1875-1879.  A  similar  result  is  observed  in  the 
cases  of  Wesleyan  University  and  New  York  University, 

14  Census   Bulletin,    No.    22,    p.    24.     This    also    shows    a    de- 
crease in  children  between  1890  and  1900  of  13  per  thousand  for 
the  native  mothers  and  an  increase  of  44  for  the  foreign  mothers. 

15  See  Harvard   Graduates'  Magazine,  vol.   n,   p.  355,    (Mar. 
1903). 


ii6  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

in  each  of  which  the  average  fell  from  4  or  over,  in  the 
period  1830-1850,  to  about  2\  for  the  period  i86o-i87o.16 

In  Boston,17  it  appears  that  the  negroes  and  native 
whites  are  failing  to  keep  up  their  numbers,  the  former 
because  of  a  high  death  rate,  and  the  latter  on  account  of 
a  low  birth  rate.  But  the  foreign  born  show  an  increas- 
ing birth  rate,  which  varies  with  different  nationalities, 
and  is  highest  for  the  more  recently  arrived.  It  appears 
also  that  practically  the  whole  of  the  native  population 
of  Massachusetts  is  in  the  same  position  as  the  college 
graduates  above  referred  to;  and  that  the  decrease  in 
birth  rate  is  characteristic  of  the  social  classes  which 
constitute  the  older  part  of  the  population. 

It  is  only  fair  to  state  in  this  connection  that  the  ex- 
planation which  attributes  this  result  to  voluntary  re- 
striction has  not  passed  unchallenged.  Herbert  Spen- 
cer, for  example,  has  advanced  the  view  that  education 
diminishes  actual  fertility.  But  though  this  be  so,  the 
great  majority  of  children  would  be  produced  by  the 
more  fertile  individuals,  and,  on  ordinary  principles  of 
inheritance,  would  tend  themselves  to  continue  fertile 
and  to  produce  large  families;  and  the  class  who  were 

16  Edward  L.  Thorndike,  "  The  Decrease  in  Size  of  American 
Families,"    in   Popular  Science   Monthly,  vol.   63,   p.    64    (May, 
1903).     Investigation  in  New  York  City  has  disclosed  the  fact 
that  there  are  large  numbers  of  apartment  houses  where  large 
families  are  not  received.    Six  real  estate  agents  controlling  many 
flats  renting  for  from  $50  to  $100  per  month  refuse  to  accept 
tenants  with  more  than  two  children.     In  one  house  containing 
suites  renting  from  $400  to  $800  there  were  sixty  families  and 
no  children;   in  another  there  were  forty  families  and  but  six 
children;  in  another,  containing  apartments  for  24  families,  there 
were  but  three  children.     Out  of  twenty-two  apartment  houses 
containing  485  families  there  were  but  54  children. 

17  Dr.  F.  A.  Bushee,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  63,  pp. 
355-363  (Aug.  1903). 


Racial   Effects  117 

not  fertile,  or  who  believed  in  voluntary  restriction,  would 
tend  to  die  out,  if  not  recruited  through  converts  to  re- 
striction from  the  class  naturally  fertile.  It  is  difficult 
to  suppose  that  the  amount  of  education  in  one  or  two 
generations  would  be  sufficient  to  affect  general  fertility, 
and  it  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  change  in  birth 
rate  must  be  due  to  a  desire  to  concentrate  advantages, 
either  by  increasing  the  period  of  time  devoted  to  educa- 
tion and  accumulation  of  wealth,  or  to  voluntary  restric- 
tion of  offspring. 

It  has  also  been  suggested  that  races,  like  individuals, 
have  a  natural  period  of  vigor,  followed  by  a  decline  and 
extinction ;  but  if  this  hypothesis  were  true,  it  would  re- 
quire a  considerable  period  for  its  demonstration.  In 
the  case  of  stock  of  English  descent  in  the  United  States, 
a  general  decay  of  race  seems  to  be  negatived  by  the 
larger  birth  rates  in  the  newer  parts  of  the  country  to 
which  the  native  stock  of  New  England,  for  example, 
has  emigrated.18  In  the  Southern  States,  which  have 
received  but  little  foreign  immigration,  the  birth  rate 
remained  substantially  unchanged  during  the  last  cen- 
tury. 

That  diminished  fertility  is  not  the  cause  of  small 
families  in  the  East  seems  further  to  be  supported  by 
the  fact  that  in  many  of  the  older  countries  of  Europe 
where,  owing  to  the  simplicity  of  peasant  life  and  per- 
haps to  firmly  fixed  class  distinctions,  social  ambition  is  a 
less  potent  factor,  the  birth  rate  has  continued  writh 
full  vigor.  Also  because  in  the  countries  from  which 
there  has  been  a  considerable  emigration,  the  birth  rate 

18  In  the  West,  while  the  patriarchal  families  of  ten  and 
twelve  children  are  no  longer  common,  families  of  four  or  five 
children  among  the  native  Americans  are.  Prof.  T.  N.  Carver, 
in  World's  Work,  p.  4234  (Dec.  19x13). 


ii8          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

immediately  increases  to  such  a  degree  that  the  pressure 
of  population  is  soon  restored  to  its  former  condition.19 

William  Farr,  an  eminent  student  of  vital  statistics, 
observed  many  years  ago  that,  as  in  the  case  of  England, 
emigration  increased  the  birth  rates  in  the  countries  from 
which  it  took  place.  Although  immigration  has  not 
taken  place  on  the  continent  of  Europe  to  the  same  extent 
as  in  this  country,  it  could  probably  be  shown  that  it 
has  diminished  the  birth  rate  in  the  countries  to  which 
it  moves,  both  among  the  natives  already  there  and 
among  the  emigrating  population. 

That  voluntary  restriction  induced  by  immigration  is, 
in  large  part,  the  true  explanation  of  these  phenomena 
has  also  been  expressed  by  M.  Arsene  DuMont,  who  has 
stated  the  law  in  the  following  proposition :  that  popula- 
tion increases  inversely  with  "  social  capillarity."  In 
other  words,  where,  in  a  community,  there  are  groups 
with  different  social  standards,  prudential  restraint  is 
exercised  by  the  group  or  groups  having  the  social  stand- 
ard to  maintain.  The  lower  groups,  oblivious  to  such 
considerations,  multiply  both  from  pure  indifference  to 
the  outcome,  and  from  the  economic  gain  arising  from 
an  increase  in  the  size  of  the  family.  This  principle  of 
social  capillarity  is  an  element  often  overlooked  in  the 
ordinary  statement  of  the  law  of  population,  that  the 
increase  varies  inversely  to  the  density.20  For  although 
density  exercises,  no  doubt,  an  economic  check,  even 
where  the  population  is  homogeneous,  the  social  factor 

19  A  table  showing  the  birth  rates  for  the  various  elements  of 
population  in  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island,  as  well  as  for 
the   whole  population  of  those   States   and   for   certain   foreign 
countries,  will  be  found  in  an  Appendix.     See  also  R.  R.  Kuczyn- 
ski,  in  Boston  Herald,  Mar.  31,  1902. 

20  A.   H.   Hyde,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  52,  p.  389 
(Jan.   1898). 


Racial   Effects  119 

is  almost  as  powerful  if  not  more  powerful  than  the 
economic  factor;  and  this  is  not  taken  into  account  in 
speaking  merely  of  density. 

As  has  already  been  indicated,  the  same  tendencies 
to  artificial  restriction  of  births  are  beginning  to  operate 
both  among  the  earlier  and  more  recent21  immi- 
grants. Inasmuch  as  social  and  educational  considera- 
tions are  weaker  among  the  more  recent  arrivals,  the 
change  in  sentiment  resulting  in  restriction  of  families 
is  not  likely  to  operate  to  a  very  large  extent  for  some 
time  to  come.  That  the  foreign  born  in  the  United 
States  do  not  increase  faster,  is  doubtless  due  largely  to 
the  fact  that  the  children  of  foreign-born  are,  after  a 
time,  reckoned  as  natives  in  the  censuses ;  to  the  very 
considerable  emigration  which  continually  goes  on, 
especially  among  "  birds  of  passage ; "  and  to  the  large 
infant  mortality  arising  from  the  very  unfavorable  con- 
ditions in  which  many  of  the  newer  arrivals  live. 

No  one,  of  course,  can  contend  for  a  moment  that  the 
United  States  or  any  part  of  it,  with  some  exceptions  in 
large  cities,  has  as  large  a  population  as  it  could  support. 
The  densest  population  in  parts  of  Massachusetts,  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  Jersey  is  about  90  per  square  mile. 
In  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Michigan,  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Illinois  and  Kentucky  the 
average  is  between  45  and  90  individuals  per  square  mile. 
When  we  compare  this  with  certain  foreign  countries 
we  see  the  immense  difference;  thus,  in  1890,  the  Nether- 
lands had  359  inhabitants  per  square  mile ;  Great  Britain, 

21  See  Dr.  F.  A.  Bushee,  "  Ethnic  Factors  in  the  Population  of 
Boston,"  Publications  of  the  American  Economic  Association,  3d 
series,  p.  4  (May,  1903)  ;  Peter  Roberts,  Anthracite  Coal  Com- 
munities, pp.  74  ff.  For  a  denial  of  Dr.  Bushee's  statement  that 
the  Irish  are  tending  to  die  out,  see  The  Republic  (Boston),  July 
25,  1903- 


I2O          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

311;  Germany,  234;  France,  187,  and  China,  295.22  The 
problem,  then,  is  not  one  of  numbers,  but  of  quality ;  not 
of  mere  additions,  but  of  a  lowering  of  average  value ; 
and  as  such  it  is  more  fundamental  than  any  mere  ques- 
tion of  quantitative  selection. 

22  S.  G.  Croswell,  in  North  American  Review,  vol.  164,  p.  528 
(May,  1897).  Cp.  Edward  Atkinson,  "Incalculable  Room  fo.r 
Immigrants,"  in  Forum,  voL  13,  p.  360  (May,  1892), 


CHAPTER    VII 
ECONOMIC  EFFECTS  OF  IMMIGRATION 

IT  is  impossible  to  consider  the  economic  effects  of 
immigration  entirely  apart  from  the  racial,  social,  and 
political  effects.  An  immigrant,  because  he  is  a  human 
being,  touches  the  life  in  the  country  in  which  he  makes 
his  new  home  on  many  sides,  in  this  respect  differing 
from  inanimate  merchandise.  The  economic  effects  pro- 
duced by  certain  classes  of  immigrants  may  be  tempo- 
rarily disastrous,  while,  upon  the  whole,  these  same  im- 
migrants may  add  to  the  strength  of  social  and  polit- 
ical institutions,  and  may  contribute  to  the  produc- 
tion of  a  more  valuable  breeding  stock.  On  the  other 
hand,  immigrants  may  be  a  definite  and  incontrovertible 
gain  to  the  country  from  an  economic  point  of  view, 
and  yet  their  presence  may  cause  social  degradation, 
political  dangers  and  racial  deterioration.  The  efficiency 
of  labor  itself  depends  to  a  considerable  degree  not  only 
upon  the  physical,  but  also  on  the  mental  condition  of 
the  worker,  and  these  in  turn  depend  upon  all  those 
elements  entering  into  the  condition  of  the  working 
classes,  housing,  health,  home  life,  and  the  like.1 

A.    DEMAND  FOR  LABOR 

The  economic  effect  of  immigration  most  discussed, 
is  that  upon  the  labor  market.  It  is  alleged  that  immi- 
gration produces  at  certain  periods  an  over-supply  of 

1  Cp.  W.  H.  Mallock,  Aristocracy  and  Evolution. 

121 


122          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

labor,  and  causes  a  fall  in  the  rates  of  wages  and  the 
standard  of  living  of  the  workingmen.  This  matter  can 
be  tested  by  the  demand  for  labor,  by  the  evidence  of 
employers  and  workmen  as  to  competition,  and  by  the 
numbers  of  the  unemployed. 

Except  from  certain  parts  of  the  South  and  West, 
which  seek  farm  laborers  who  have  families,  and  who 
bring  some  money  and  intend  a  permanent  settlement, 
there  is  practically  no  demand  in  this  country  for  immi- 
grant labor.2  This  was  brought  out  by  the  Immigration 
Investigating  Commission  in  1895,  and  by  the  replies 
received  from  the  Governors  and  Commissioners  of 
Labor  of  the  various  States  in  response  to  inquiries  made 
by  the  Immigration  Restriction  League  in  1904  and 
1905.3  There  is,  and  there  always  has  been,  a  demand 
for  the  cheapest  labor  on  the  part  of  certain  railroads, 
mine  owners  and  contractors.  But  these  view  the  mat- 
ter solely  from  the  standpoint  of  the  profits  of  their 
business,  and  their  importation  of  cheap  labor  led  to  the 
passage  of  the  contract  labor  laws. 

It  is  frequently  said  in  discussions  of  this  subject  that 
the  foreigners  have  come  to  do  work  which  the  natives 
were  no  longer  willing  to  attempt,  and  that  this  country 
has  been  fortunate  to  have  plenty  of  cheap  labor  for 
employments  of  the  lower  sort.  The  argument,  how- 
ever, is  based  upon  a  fallacy.  As  long  as  society  was 
homogeneous,  Americans  were  ready  to  do  all  kinds  of 
work.  Men  like  Emerson  performed  much  manual 
labor  in  addition  to  their  intellectual  pursuit,  and  the 

2  As  to  the  Southern  feeling  on  this  question  see  Manufac- 
turers' Record  (Baltimore),  vol.  48,  pp.  5-13  (July  20,  1905),  and 
PP-  33,  36  (July  27,  1005)  ;  R.  De  C.  Ward,  "  Immigration  and 
the  South,"  in  Atlantic  Monthly,  vol.  96,  pp.  611-616  (Nov.    1905). 

3  The  nature  of  these  replies  is  discussed  in  chapter  xiv.  infra. 


Economic  Effects  123 

American  farmer  of  sixty  years  ago  was  a  jack  of  all 
trades.  So  long  as  manual  labor  was  honorable  socially, 
large  families  were  an  economic  benefit  instead  of  an 
economic  burden,  and  all  the  manual  laborers  needed  could 
have  been  and  would  have  been  produced  by  the  increase 
of  the  native  stock.  Benjamin  Franklin  stated  that  the 
average  American  family  in  1700  was  eight.  He  himself 
was  the  next  to  the  youngest  child  in  a  family  of  seven- 
teen. Cotton  Mather  had  twenty  children.  While  men 
were  needed  to  till  the  fields  and  to  fight  the  Indians, 
large  families  were  the  rule.  The  fallacy  in  question  is 
further  exposed  by  the  fact  that  the  Italians  coming  in 
at  a  later  period  have  displaced  to  a  large  extent  the 
Irish  who  were  actually  performing  manual  labor,  and 
the  same  is  true  of  the  displacement  of  the  "  English  " 
by  the  "  Slav  "  labor  in  the  Pennsylvania  mining  regions. 
In  these  cases  the  laborers  first  in  the  field  were  anxious 
to  work,  and  bitterly  objected  to  being  deprived  of  their 
jobs  by  the  newcomers,  who,  as  they  were  without 
families  and  with  a  far  inferior  standard  of  living,  could 
accept  lower  wages.  The  newer  immigration  is  causing 
the  same  reduction  of  the  birth  rate  among  the  earlier 
immigrants,  which  the  latter  caused  among  the  native 
Americans. 

B.     EFFECT   ON   WAGES  AND   STANDARD  OF   LIVING 

So  many  factors  enter  into  the  rate  of  wages  that  it 
is  difficult  to  express  in  statistical  form  the  results  of 
immigration  upon  the  labor  market.  For  example,  in 
times  of  prosperity,  wages  tend  to  advance;  and  this 
advance  is  followed,  as  has  been  shown  above,  by  an  in- 
crease of  immigration.  Increased  immigration  tends  to 
promote  competition,  and  so  far  tends  to  check  the  rise 
of  wages ;  but  it  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  tell  in  a  given 


124  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

case  whether  wages  would  have  gone  still  higher  if 
increased  immigration  had  not  occurred.  On  the  other 
hand,  when  prosperity  diminishes,  wages  naturally  tend 
to  fall,  and  this  is  followed,  though  after  a  not  inconsid- 
erable interval,  by  a  diminution  of  immigration.  Hence, 
it  is  difficult  to  determine  how  much  of  the  fall  of  wages 
is  due  to  the  previous  large  immigration,  and  how  much 
to  the  diminution  of  the  fund  out  of  which  wages  are 
paid.  The  problem  is  also  complicated  by  the  large 
numbers  of  immigrants  who  are  willing  to  work  for  less 
than  the  average  wage.  The  number  of  persons  out  of 
employment  within  a  given  time  needs  to  be  supple- 
mented by  statistics  of  the  wages  actually  paid  in  the 
different  industries  and  to  the  different  classes  of 
workers. 

It  is,  however,  the  almost  universal  belief  of  the 
workers  themselves,  at  least  so  far  as  they  are  organ- 
ized, that  immigration  tends  to  lower  wages  and  to  lower 
the  standard  of  living.  This  was  the  opinion  of  the 
Massachusetts  Commission  on  the  Unemployed  in  its 
report  in  i895.4  It  is  also  shown  by  the  forcible  and  con- 

4 "  It  appears  to  us  that  the  evil  of  non-employment  is  in  a 
considerable  measure  due  to  ill  responsible,  ill  advised  and  ill 
adapted  immigration.  It  is  found  that  not  only  in  Boston  but  in 
many  of  the  cities  of  similar  rank  in  the  United  States,  a  large 
proportion  of  those  who  needed  help  during  the  emergency  of 
last  winter  were  immigrants  who  had  recently  arrived.  It  is  im- 
possible to  introduce  any  plan  of  positive  and  immediate  aid  for 
the  unemployed  of  this  country  that  does  not  mean  doing  the 
same  for  the  unemployed  of  Europe.  Under  present  conditions, 
the  United  States  is  attempting  to  solve  the  question  of  unem- 
ployment for  Europe  as  well  as  for  itself.  The  immigrants  who 
are  now  coming  to  this  country  are,  for  the  most  part,  unskilled. 
This  section  of  the  country  has  an  abundance  of  such  labor,  even 
in  normal  times ;  and  it  cannot  be  said  that  this  immigration 
is  due  solely  to  the  working  of  the  economic  law  of  supply  and 


Economic   Effects 

tinned  demand  of  organized  labor  for  further  restriction 
of  immigration.  Of  the  5082  petitions  for  restriction 
sent  to  Congress  in  1901-2,  a  large  proportion  came  from 
the  labor  unions  of  the  country.  The  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  and  likewise  the  Knights  of  Labor  have  re- 
peatedly placed  themselves  on  record  in  favor  of  further 
restriction ; 5  and  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  at  its 
convention  in  Nashville  in  December,  1897,  by  a  vote 
of  1858  to  352,  pronounced  itself  in  favor  of  checking 
the  influx  of  cheap  foreign  labor,  and  of  an  illiteracy  test 
for  immigrants. 

The  labor  unions  are  chiefly  composed  of  skilled 
laborers,  and  these  are  the  ones  who  suffer  most  in  com- 
petition with  the  newcomers.  In  times  of  commercial 
depression,  many  skilled  workmen  are  obliged,  tempo- 
rarily, to  take  up  unskilled  employments ;  and  any  large 
influx  of  unskilled  laborers  increases  the  number  of  those 
with  whom  the  former  must  then  compete.  In  times 
of  commercial  prosperity  the  skilled  workmen  are  ex- 
demand  of  labor.  .  .  .  Much  of  the  recent  immigration  is  due, 
not  to  a  real  and  permanent  demand  for  labor  in  this  part  of  the 
country,  but  rather  to  depressed  and  abnormal  conditions  abroad, 
to  governmental  persecutions  and  to  irresponsible  and  inaccurate 
representations  in  Europe  of  industrial  conditions  in  this  country. 
.  .  .  A  large  number  of  these  immigrants  also  are  illiterate, 
and  consequently  cannot  rise  into  the  ranks  of  skilled  labor. 
They  have  become  congested  in  our  large  cities,  and  not  only 
find  themselves  repeatedly  in  need  of  relief,  but  also  depriving 
the  rank  and  file  of  our  more  permanently  established  industrial 
classes  of  opportunity  to  work  at  unskilled  employment  when 
there  is  a  temporary  interruption  in  skilled  occupations." 

5  In  a  letter  to  Representative  Watson  in  1902,  Mr.  Gompers, 
President  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  said : 

"  The  organized  workers  of  the  country  feel  that  the  existing 
immigration  laws,  while  not  without  their  value,  are  of  trifling 
effect  compared  with  the  needs  and  the  just  demand  of  American 
labor.  ,  ,  .  The  strength  of  this  country  is  in  the  intelligence 


126          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

posed  to  the  competition  not  only  of  the  skilled  aliens, 
but  even  of  the  unskilled,  and  for  the  following  reason : 
The  introduction  of  machinery  has,  to  a  large  extent, 
done  away  with  the  necessity  for  any  considerable  skill 
on  the  part  of  operatives,  as  well  as  actually  diminished 
the  number  of  operatives  required  for  a  given  output. 
The  spinning  and  weaving  industries,  for  example,  for- 
merly demanded  not  a  little  technical  skill.  At  the  pres- 
ent time,  owing  to  changes  in  the  machines  employed,  a 
relatively  unskilled  worker  can  produce  a  far  larger 
output  in  less  time.  The  unskilled  immigration  from 
Europe  and  Canada,  crowding  into  the  mills  and  fac- 
tories in  this  country,  has  displaced  labor  far  more 
skilled,  or  at  any  rate,  far  more  intelligent.  In  New 
England,  the  Irish  displaced  the  native  Americans ;  they 
in  their  turn  were  displaced  by  the  French  Canadians, 
who  are  now  to  some  extent  being  themselves  displaced 
by  Syrians,  Armenians  and  other  recent  immigrants. 
The  same  process  has  occurred  in  the  mining  regions. 
Originally  most  of  the  workers  were  British,  Irish  and 

and  the  prosperity  of  our  working  people.  But  both  the  intelli- 
gence and  the  prosperity  of  our  working  people  are  endangered 
by  the  present  immigration.  Cheap  labor,  ignorant  labor,  takes 
our  jobs  and  cuts  our  wages.  The  fittest  survive;  that  is,  those 
that  fit  the  conditions  best,  but  it  is  the  economically  weak,  not 
the  economically  strong,  that  fit  the  conditions  of  the  labor 
market  They  fit  best  because  they  can  be  got  to  work  cheapest. 
Women  and  children  drive  out  men,  unless  either  law  or  labor 
organizations  stop  it.  In  just  the  same  way  the  Chinamen  and 
others  drive  out  the  American,  the  German,  the  Irishman.  .  .  . 
A  fall  in  wages  or  a  relative  fall  of  wages  makes  the  workers 
unable  to  buy  as  large  a  share  as  before  of  the  goods  they  pro- 
duce. This  hastens  the  time  when  over-production  or  under- 
consumption will  show  itself.  That  means  hard  times ;  and  when 
hard  times  come,  the  mass  of  immigrants  that  prosperity  at- 
tracted, will  be  here  to  increase  the  burden  of  the  unemployed." 


Economic  Effects  127 

German.  To-day  in  the  lower  grades  of  work  they  are 
very  largely  "  Slav,"  and  the  former  miners  either  oc- 
cupy the  lower  grades  of  work,  or  have  become 
policemen  or  operatives,  or  have  been  crowded  out  en- 
tirely, and  have  gone  elsewhere.  The  standard  of  living 
of  these  mine  laborers  is  very  different  from  that  of  the 
earlier  immigrants.6  The  Special  Agent  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  in  testifying  before  the  Industrial 
Commission,  said  that  in  the  mining  regions  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  1897,  the  compulsory  education  law  was  a  dead 
letter.  The  children  were  not  in  the  schools,  but  were 
mostly  in  the  mines  working  as  helpers,  pickers,  and  the 
like.  Many  of  the  mothers  also  were  working,  leaving 
their  children  unattended  under  the  shade  of  the  trees. 
Overcrowding  was  the  rule ;  in  one  case  twenty  miners 
occupied  one  small  shanty.  Sanitation  did  not  exist. 
The  Irish  and  Welsh  miners,  who  in  1884  were  a  con- 

6  Peter  Roberts,  Anthracite  Coal  Communities,  chapters  I,  2 
and  4 ;  Henry  Rood,  "  The  Mine  Laborers  in  Pennsylvania,"  in 
Forum,  vol.  14,  pp.  110-122  (Sept.  1892).  The  latter  says,  p. 

"5: 

"  When  a  stranger  visits  the  anthracite  regions  he  is  filled 
with  sympathy  for  the  poor  Italian  and  the  Slav.  He  considers 
the  American  resident  heartless  in  the  extreme.  He  is  amazed 
at  the  way  the  foreigners  are  regarded.  But  a  single  year  spent 
in  that  land  will  show  him  the  truth,  no  matter  how  tender 
hearted  he  is.  He  will  then  know  that  disgust  should  take  the 
place  of  surprise.  He  sees  a  thousand  idle  Americans,  and  a  like 
number  of  foreigners  slaving  for  eighty  or  ninety  cents  a  day. 
He  sees  the  Americans  sending  their  children  to  school,  support- 
ing churches,  living  in  decent  houses,  trying  to  be  cleanly,  and  to 
wear  presentable  clothing.  He  also  sees  the  scum  of  Europe 
taking  the  place  of  the  former,  content  to  swarm  in  shanties  like 
hogs,  to  contract  scurvy  by  a  steady  diet  of  the  cheapest  salt 
pork,  to  suffer  sore  eyes  and  bodies  rather  than  to  buy  a  towel 
and  washtub,  to  endure  typhoid  fever  rather  than  undergo  the 
expense  of  the  most  primitive  sanitary  apparatus." 


128  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

tented  class  of  people  living  in  clean  dwellings,  had  been 
unable  to  withstand  the  competition  of  the  newcomers, 
and  had  gone  west  to  where  the  competition  was  not  so 
strong.  The  agent  stated  also  that  the  rising  generation 
of  Jews,  Italians  and  Hungarians  is  likely  to  live  for 
the  most  part  in  the  same  conditions  as  their  parents, 
and  to  remain  unskilled  laborers.7 

Of  course,  after  a  time,  as  Dr.  Roberts  points  out, 
the  Slav  immigrants  who  have  been  in  the  mining 
regions  for  some  time,  tend  to  raise  their  standard  of 
living;  but  this  process  is  slow,  and  the  benefit  is  largely 
neutralized  by  the  continual  influx  of  those  whose  stand- 
ard is  the  lowest.  It  was  to  better  just  these  conditions 
that  we  passed  the  numerous  factory  acts  now  on  the 
statute  books;  restricted  the  hours  of  labor;  regulated 
the  employment  of  women  and  children ;  and  adopted 
compulsory  education  for  children  under  a  certain  age. 
These  improvements  are  largely  neutralized  by  the  im- 
migration of  aliens  willing  to  work  for  a  lower  wage 
than  the  standard  of  this  country. 

Under  present  conditions  there  is  a  constant  struggle 
to  maintain  our  standard  of  living,  with  all  that  it 
implies.  General  Francis  A.  Walker  expressed  this  dan- 
ger when  he  said  that  immigration  of  the  lowest  class 
"  will  not  be  permanently  stopped  so  long  as  any  differ- 
ence of  economic  level  exists  between  our  population 
and  that  of  the  most  degraded  communities  abroad." 
The  wages  of  agricultural  laborers  outside  of  harvest 
time  in  the  United  States,  except  in  the  South,  range 
from  $1.25  to  $1.50  a  day.  In  England  they  are  $0.50  a 
day ;  in  Italy,  $0.16  to  $0.28 ;  in  Russia  and  Austria-Hun- 
gary, $0.30.  The  cost  of  living  in  Europe  is,  to  be  sure, 

7  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  192-196) 
201. 


Economic   Effects  129 

also  less ;  it  has  been  estimated  as  30  or  40  per  cent. 
of  that  in  the  United  States.  But,  taking  Italy  as  an 
example,  it  is  said  that  wages  in  the  United  States  are 
five  times  as  high,  and  the  cost  of  living  three  times  as 
high.  It  is  asserted  that  a  foreign  laborer  sooner  or 
later  finds  that  he  must  raise  his  standard  of  living, 
must,  for  example,  eat  meat,  to  fulfill  the  more  exacting 
standard  of  work  in  this  country,  and  keep  the  pace  with 
other  laborers.  But  in  many  occupations  where  there 
is  no  standard  wage  and  no  effective  labor  organization, 
an  employer  can  obtain  laborers  at  the  lowest  rates,  and 
he  often  finds  it  to  his  advantage  to  employ  more  men 
at  a  lower  rate  rather  than  fewer  men  at  a  higher  rate. 
The  Italian  laborer  in  a  trench,  who  lives  largely  on 
stale  bread  and  beer,  cannot  do  as  much  work  as  an 
American,  an  Irishman,  or  a  German,  who  eats  meat ; 
but  he  will  do  a  good  deal  more  than  half  as  much 
work  on  half  as  much  wages,  and  many  recently  arrived 
immigrants  are  only  too  ready  to  work  for  a  low  wage 
and  to  keep  their  standard  of  living  as  close  to  that 
which  they  have  previously  followed  as  possible. 

The  same  influx  of  low-grade  labor  and  the  develop- 
ment of  machinery,  acting  in  combination,  produce  the 
same  tendencies  in  the  farming  regions  as  in  the  mines 
and  the  factories.  Dr.  True,  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture,  states  that  about  2,000,000  men,  or  6,000,000 
persons  in  all,  gave  up  farming  and  went  to  join  the 
toilers  in  our  cities  between  1870  and  1890.  This  tend- 
ency to  seek  the  cities  will  be  considered  again  hereafter,8 
but  it  may  be  mentioned  in  this  place  as  one  of  the 
principal  effects  of  immigration  upon  labor.  It  has 
been  explained  by  many  as  the  result  of  the  monotonous 
conditions  of  the  country  and  the  greater  pleasures  and 

8  Chapter  viii.,  E. 


130          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

comforts  in  the  town.     In  regard  to  this  view,  Dr.  True 
says: 

"  Lately,  however,  a  few  students  of  modern  life  have 
come  to  see  and  to  say  that,  while  present  industrial 
conditions  continue,  the  movement  of  populations  to 
cities  will  continue.  The  fact  is  that,  broadly  speaking, 
men  leave  the  farms  because  they  are  not  needed  there. 
...  A  smaller  number  of  men  working  in  our  fields 
turn  out  a  much  greater  product  than  the  greater  num- 
ber of  laborers  could  possibly  secure  in  olden  times.  .  .  . 
For  a  time  in  this  country  cheap  land,  superficial  methods 
of  cultivation,  rapid  development  of  farm  machinery, 
and  the  swift  increase  of  population  engaged  in  mining 
and  manufacturing  enabled  our  farmers  to  extend  their 
operations  with  profit,  and  to  give  employment  to  thou- 
sands of  new  men.  But  gradually,  and  more  rapidly 
within  the  past  twenty-five  years,  invention  has  gained 
the  mastery  in  agriculture  as  in  other  arts.  The  brain 
of  man  has  triumphed  over  his  hand,  here  as  elsewhere. 
.  .  .  Fewer  workers  per  acre  are  required.  The  horse 
or  the  machine,  steam  or  electricity,  has  taken  the  place 
of  the  boy  or  the  man.  Make  farm  life  never  so  attrac- 
tive, and  there  will  be  but  little  difference.  There  are 
more  birds  in  the  nest  than  the  parents  can  take  care  of. 
...  It  is  not  love  of  the  town  so  much  as  necessity 
to  earn  a  livelihood  off  the  farm  which  drives  boys  to 
the  town  and  makes  them  competitors  in  the  great 
industrial  struggles  at  the  centres  of  population.9 

In  the  Corn  Belt,  for  example,  although  everybody 
works,  the  development  in  machinery  has  been  such  that 
a  scarcity  of  labor  is  felt  only  in  a  very  short  period 
of  the  year.  Professor  Carver,  who  has  recently  visited 
that  region,  says : 

"  Riding  plows  and  cultivators,  disk  harrows  and  corn 
harvesters,  as  well  as  twine  binders  and  hay  stackers,  so 
reduce  the  amount  of  muscular  strength  needed  that  a 
8  Arena,  vol.  17,  pp.  538-540  (Mar.  1897). 


Economic  Effects  131 

boy  ten  years  of  age  will  frequently  render  almost  as 
much  service  as  a  grown  man.  I  was  shown  one  corn 
field  of  120  acres  which  had  been  cultivated  almost 
entirely  by  two  girls,  aged  thirteen  and  fifteen,  using 
riding  cultivators."  10 

The  chief  significance  of  the  facts  stated  in  these  pas- 
sages is  obvious.  It  means,  on  the  one  hand,  that  the 
country  boys  and  girls  coming  to  the  cities,  are  brought 
into  competition  with  several  hundred  thousand  immi- 
grants. It  means,  on  the  other  hand,  that,  so  far  as 
immigrants  go  onto  the  farms  and  work  for  lower  wages, 
the  tendency  toward  the  cities  is  thereby  increased  and 
made  more  powerful. 

C.      THE  PADRONE  SYSTEM 

One  of  the  effects  of  immigration  which  has  attracted 
an  unusual  degree  of  public  attention,  is  the  so-called 
padrone  system.11  A  padrone  is  a  contractor,  usually 
a  foreigner,  who  keeps  in  close  touch  with  arriving 
immigrants,  secures  their  labor  at  a  low  wage,  and  then 
rents  it  out  to  other  contractors  engaged  in  works  of 
construction.  Very  frequently  the  contractor  is  also  a 
banker,  and,  occasionally,  a  boarding-house  keeper,  com- 
bining as  many  ways  to  secure  the  immigrant's  money 
for  himself  as  possible.  It  is  said  that  the  Act  of  1864 
for  the  encouragement  of  immigration,  which  gave  con- 

10 T.  N.  Carver,  "Life  in  the  Corn  Belt,"  in  World's  Work, 
p.  4235  (Dec.  1903). 

11  See  Report  of  Immigration  Investigating  Commission,  pp. 
26-29  (1895)  ;  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  p. 
Ixxix;  Broughton  Brandenburg,  in  Collier's  Weekly,  vol.  34, 
p.  29  (Nov.  19,  1904) ;  Senate  Documents,  53d  Congress,  2d 
Session,  No.  114  (1894);  Bulletin  of  the  Department  of  Labor, 
No.  9,  (Mar.  1897)  ;  Gino  C.  Speranza,  "  Forced  Labor  in  West 
Virginia,"  in  Outlook,  vol.  74,  pp.  407-410  (June  13,  1903). 


132  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

tractors,  manufacturers  and  employers  power  to  con- 
tract with  laborers  from  Europe  to  take  the  places  of 
American  workmen,  was  responsible  for  the  beginnings 
of  the  padrone  system.  The  Italians  were  the  first  to  be 
exploited  by  this  method  and  are  still  its  chief  victims, 
but  the  practice  has  spread  to  include  Slav,  Jewish, 
Greek  and  other  laborers;  and,  although  the  details  of 
the  system  vary  somewhat  with  the  nationality  and  the 
kind  of  labor  the  immigrant  performs,  the  working  is 
simple.  A  contractor,  who  has  a  large  job  on  hand  and 
wishes  to  secure  the  lowest-cost  labor,  applies,  for  ex- 
ample, to  an  Italian  banker.  The  banker,  through  agents 
in  Italy,  secures  the  necessary  number  of  laborers  and 
has  them  sent  here  on  prepaid  tickets  from  each  of  which 
he  receives  a  commission.  On  landing,  the  men  are 
taken  in  hand  by  his  agent,  distributed  among  boarding- 
houses  under  his  control,  and  charged  extortionate  rates 
for  board.  The  banker  finally  assigns  them  to  their  work, 
and  collects  a  commission  both  from  them  and  from  the 
contractor.  While  employed,  they  are  forced  to  live 
together  in  shanties  owned  or  hired  by  the  banker's 
agent,  to  pay  exorbitant  rents,  and  to  buy  all  their  pro- 
visions from  this  agent  at  enormous  prices.  All  the 
money  sent  home  by  them  is  transmitted  by  the  banker, 
who  charges  a  large  fee  for  this  service  in  addition  to 
the  exchange.  When  they  are  ready  to  return  to  Italy, 
the  banker  secures  another  profit  on  the  return  tickets. 
In  this  way,  from  the  time  they  leave  home  until  they 
return,  the  immigrants  are  a  constant  source  of  profit. 

The  operations  of  the  padroni  are  a  serious  menace  to 
the  cause  of  advancement  of  labor;  not  merely  because 
they  stimulate  the  importation  of  labor,  but  on  account 
of  the  ease  and  mobility  with  which  labor  under  their 
control  can  be  sent  to  different  parts  of  the  country. 


Economic  Effects  133 

In  1886,  for  example,  circulars  of  a  New  York  company 
were  distributed  broadcast  through  the  State  of  Wis- 
consin, advertising  gangs  of  men  for  grading,  mining, 
street  cleaning,  snow  shovelling,  and  similar  kinds  of 
labor.  In  more  recent  times  the  system  has  spread 
among  the  Assyrians,  Arabs,  Turks,  Greeks  and  Ar- 
menians who  are  being  brought  here  to  peddle  goods, 
to  black  boots,  and  to  beg.12  For  example,  the  Com- 
missioner recently  discovered  that  eighty  boys  who 
arrived  together  at  Boston  from  Italy,  were  to  be  farmed 
out  as  helpers  in  truck  gardens  and  other  work  of  that 
kind.  It  is  asserted  that  the  system  does  not  operate 
as  extensively  as  formerly,  especially  in  regard  to  the 
Italians.  But  it  may  be  replied  that  although  infrac- 
tions of  the  contract  labor  law  are  not  so  common,  yet 
it  is  understood  that  there  is  a  market  for  certain  kinds 
of  labor  in  New  York  City,  and  immigrants  of  certain 
nationalities  who  come  on  the  strength  of  this  informa- 
tion fall  under  the  control  of  the  padroni  of  their  own 
race  almost  as  quickly  as  if  they  had  been  directly  im- 
ported. Competent  witnesses  further  report  that  most 
of  the  Italian  banks  even  at  the  present  day,  are  more  or 
less  engaged  in  this  business. 

D.      THE   SWEATING   SYSTEM 

Closely  akin  to  the  padrone  system  is  the  "  sweating 
system."  This  term  originally  denoted  a  system  of  sub- 
contract wherein  work  was  let  out  to  contractors,  to  be 
done  usually  by  muscular  power  in  small  shops  or 
homes.  It  is  contrasted  with  the  factory  system,  where 
the  manufacturer  employs  his  own  workmen  in  his  own 
building  with  steam  or  other  power.  The  sweating  sys- 

12  As  to  Greeks  and  the  boot-black  trade  see  Report  of  the 
Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1904,  p.  38.  » 


134  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

tern  was  not  originally  peculiar  to  immigrants ;  but  in 
the  sixties,  immigrants,  especially  the  Russian  Jews,  in- 
vaded the  lines  of  work  where  the  system  prevailed,  and 
by  their  willingness  to  adopt  machines,  such  as  sewing 
machines,  and  by  division  of  labor,  quickly  ousted  the 
English,  Irish,  and  native  labor  previously  employed. 
The  sweater  is  now  chiefly  an  organizer  and  employer. 
of  immigrants,  like  the  padrone.  Formerly  he  was 
generally  a  lodging-house  keeper,  to-day  he  is  a  manu- 
facturer. The  wages  paid  by  the  sweater  are  from  one- 
quarter  to  one-half  those  formerly  obtained  by  inde- 
pendent workmen.  From  the  fact  that  attics,  tenements 
and  cellars  are  used  for  shops,  and  because  of  the  low 
wages  paid,  the  sweater  is  able,  with  footpower,  to  com- 
pete with  the  machine  power  of  factories.  The  hours 
of  labor  are  unlimited.  If  the  workers  ask  for  higher 
wages,  the  sweater  answers  that  he  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  price,  and  that  the  latter  is  made  by  the  manu- 
facturer. As  the  manufacturer  is  unknown  to  the 
operatives,  they  have  no  means  of  making  him  responsi- 
ble. Both  the  contractor  and  the  sweating  system  are 
the  products  of  an  overcrowded  labor  market,  and  this 
is  due  to  the  multitude  of  newly  arrived  immigrants  will- 
ing to  work  for  almost  any  wage.  Factory  legislation, 
labor  unions  and  tenement  house  reform  are  alike  unable 
to  cope  with  the  condition.  As  sweatshop  employees 
progress  upward,  some  join  the  labor  unions;  but  the 
ambition  of  most  is  to  become  themselves  contractors 
and  sweaters.  In  either  case,  the  continually-arriving 
immigrant  labor  supplies  the  material  and  the  motive 
power  for  the  continuance  of  the  system.  The  committee 
of  the  House  of  Lords  which  investigated  this  matter, 
reported  in  1890  that  the  principal  evils  of  the  system 
were  inadequate  wages,  excessive  hours  of  labor,  and  the 


Economic  Effects  135 

unsanitary  condition  of  the  workshops.13  The  testimony 
before  the  Industrial  Commission  was  all  to  the  effect 
that  factory  legislation  cannot  remedy  this  condition, 
and  that  so  long  as  a  constant  stream  of  cheap  labor 
continues  to  flood  our  large  cities,  economic  conditions 
will  not  right  themselves.  One  inspector  testified  that 
after  two  days'  inspection  of  the  sweatshops  of  Phila- 
delphia, he  had  found  such  filth,  vice,  suffering  and 
actual  starvation  that  he  was  unable  to  continue  his 
investigation.14 

E.     UNEMPLOYMENT 

The  displacement  of  large  numbers  of  native  workers 
by  foreigners  who  underbid  them,  affects  the  standard 
of  living,  not  only  by  direct  competition,  but  by  increas- 
ing the  ranks  of  the  unemployed.  In  other  words,  it 
increases  the  number  not  only  of  those  unemployed  at 
the  standard  wage,  but  of  those  unemployed  at  any  wage. 
Here  again  so  many  factors  enter  into  the  labor  market 
that  it  is  impossible  to  say  exactly  what  part  immigration 
plays  in  its  variations.  In  1892,  the  Massachusetts 
census  showed  29  per  cent,  of  the  population  was  out  of 
employment  for  some  part  of  that  year.  It  has  been 
estimated  15  that  6,000,000  persons  were  out  of  employ- 
ment for  some  part  of  the  year  ending  March  31,  1897, 
or  2,000,000  persons  for  the  whole  year.  From  1891 
to  1896,  inclusive,  we  added  about  3,500,000  immigrants 
to  our  population,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  unskilled. 
The  report  of  the  Massachusets  Commission  on  the  Un- 
employed, already  quoted  from,  attributes  the  evils  of 

13  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  319-327. 

14  Cp.,   as   to    London,   W.    Evans-Gordon,    The   Alien   Immi- 
grant, chaps,  i.,  ii. 

15  John  Chetwood,  Jr.,  in  Arena,  vol.  18,  p.  792  (Dec.  1897). 


136          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

lack  of  work  in  1893-4  largely  to  immigration.  It  is 
a  curious  coincidence  that  in  Massachusetts  in  1893, 
30  per  cent,  of  males  who  had  previously  been  em- 
ployed were  unemployed ;  and_  of  these,  30,000  persons 
were  unskilled ;  and  that  in  the  year  1892-3  exactly 
30,000  unskilled  immigrants  landed  in  the  United  States 
bound  for  Massachusetts.  In  New  York  State  for  the 
year  1902,  about  15  per  cent,  of  all  workers  were  idle; 
and  in  1897  the  percentage  was  as  high  as  22.  More 
than  one-half  of  those  unemployed  were  so  from 
lack  of  work,  and  not  from  strikes,  illness  or  other 
causes.  In  the  face  of  such  figures,  it  seems  idle  to 
claim  that  labor  must  be  imported  or  industry  will 
suffer. 

It  may  be  remarked  also  that  although  immigration  is, 
to  some  extent,  regulated  by  the  labor  market  here,  this 
has  its  bad  as  well  as  its  good  side.  Foreign  labor 
stands  as  a  constant  menace  to  the  progress  of  the 
American  laborer,  and  a  check  to  his  advancement.  The 
moment  foreign  labor  can  do  no  harm  to  the  native 
standard  of  living,  it  ceases  to  come;  while  the  moment 
conditions  here  improve,  immigration  comes  to  share 
in  and  limit  the  improvement.16 

In  various  ways  the  economic  conditions  into  which 
the  immigrant  comes,  have  changed  in  the  last  half 
century.  On  the  one  hand,  the  total  population  is  now 
so  large  that  its  natural  increase  amounts  to  about  a 
million  and  a  half  in  a  year,  and  this  increase  would 
probably  be  larger  if  there  were  a  sufficient  demand  for 
labor  at  good  wages.  On  the  other  hand,  although  of 
course  the  natural  resources  of  the  country  are  by  no 
means  fully  developed,  the  free  land  suitable  for  culti- 

16  See,  generally,  Mayo-Smith,  pp.  117-120,  123-128,  135,  143; 
British  Board  of  Trade  Report,  1893,  pp.  212-217,  221,  237-238. 


Economic  Effects  537 

vation  has  practically  disappeared.  In  1903  the  total 
area  of  the  United  States  unappropriated  and  unreserved, 
exclusive  of  Alaska,  amounted  to  about  475,000,000 
acres.17  A  very  large  part  of  this  consisted  of  mineral, 
timber  and  arid  lands  not  suitable  for  cultivation.  Dur- 
ing the  fiscal  year  1903  about  23,000,000  acres  were 
disposed  of,  including  11,000,000  homestead  entries. 
Most  immigrants  arrive  with  only  a  few  dollars  in  their 
pockets,  not  enough  to  carry  them  to  land  still  available, 
and  much  less  to  pay  even  a  low  price  for  fertile  land. 
Much  of  this  fertile  land,  moreover,  is  owned  by  rail- 
roads or  Indians  who  have  a  good  notion  of  future 
values,  and  are  not  disposed  to  sell  at  a  very  low  figure. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  immigrants  with  some  money 
can  obtain  land  from  private  owners,  and  transport 
themselves  thither  at  less  cost  than  they  could  formerly 
when  the  prairies  of  the  West  were  open  to  free  occu- 
pancy under  the  homestead  law.  But  farmers  with  some 
money,  bringing  their  families  with  them,  and  intending 
permanent  settlement,  are  not  relatively  numerous;  and 
apart  from  colonization  schemes  where  the  capital  is  fur- 
nished for  them,  there  is  no  way  in  which  land  in  the 
West  and  South  can  be  made  available  for  immigrants 
now  arriving.  That,  in  fact,  recent  immigrants  do  not 
go  West  or  South  to  any  extent  is  shown  both  by  the 
immigration  statistics  and  the  census  figures  on  the  loca- 
tion of  the  foreign-born  population.18  Moreover  those 
States  desiring  immigrants  do  not,  in  general,  desire  the 
kinds  of  settlers  now  arriving  in  the  largest  numbers.19 
The  fact  that  there  is  room  for  a  much  larger  population 
in  parts  of  the  country  seems,  therefore,  to  have  no  very 

17  Land  Office  Report,  1903,  p.  113. 

18  See  supra,  chapter  v.,  c. 

19  See  infra,  chapter  xiv.,  A« 


138          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

direct  relation  to  the  immigration  problem  as  it  now 
exists.20 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  said  that  the  chief  economic 
effects  of  immigration  have  been  the  settling  of  the  new 
portions  of  the  country,  the  exploiting  its  industries  more 
speedily  than  would  otherwise  have  been  possible,  the 
development  of  the  factory  system,  and  stimulating  the 
invention  and  use  of  machinery  requiring  no  great  skill 
for  its  operation.  Immigration  has  also  resulted  in  the 
greater  organization  of  industry  and  the  stratification  of 
society.  All  these  things  doubtless  would  have  come  to 
pass  sooner  or  later  without  immigration,  but  the  influx 
of  such  large  numbers  of  producers  has  probably  has- 
tened their  advent. 

20  See,  however,  Edward  Atkinson,  "  Incalculable  Room  for 
Immigrants,"  in  Forum,  vol.  13,  pp.  360-370  (May,  1892). 


CHAPTER    VIII 
SOCIAL  EFFECTS  OF  IMMIGRATION 

A.    ILLITERACY  1 

SOCIAL  institutions  depend  for  their  existence  upon 
the  ability  of  men  to  exchange  their  ideas  and  act  to- 
gether intelligently  for  common  purposes.  Inasmuch  as 
the  chief  means  of  doing  this  is  the  spoken  and  written 
word,  the  illiteracy  of  any  community  is  a  matter  of  great 
importance,  and  anything  that  affects  it  deserves  public 
attention. 

The  necessity  of  universal  elementary  education  has 
become  an  axiom  with  the  American  people ;  its  practical 
expression  is  found  in  the  vast  sums  expended  annually 
for  educational  purposes.  The  result  of  compulsory 
education  in  the  United  States  is  shown  in  the  following 
figures.  In  1900,  there  were  13,367,147  persons  attend- 
ing school  during  some  portion  of  the  year.  There  were 
6,180,069  illiterate  persons  over  10  years  of  age,  con- 
stituting 10.7  per  cent,  of  the  total  population  over  10 
years  of  age.  This  is  a  considerable  reduction  from  13.3 
per  cent,  in  1890  and  17.0  per  cent,  in  1880.  The  various 
elements  of  the  population  vary  considerably  in  respect 
to  illiteracy.  The  native  whites  in  1900  showed  an  aver- 

1  Twelfth  Census,  1900,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  xciii.,  xcviii.  As  to  the 
congestion  of  illiterate  immigrants  in  the  slum  districts  of  our 
large  cities,  see  infra  in  this  chapter  under  "  F.  Congestion  in 
Cities." 

139 


140          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

age  of  4.6  per  cent,  as  against  44.5  per  cent,  for  colored 
persons,  and  12.9  per  cent,  for  foreign  whites.  The 
percentage  of  all  illiterate  males  was  10.1  as  against 
1 1.2  for  illiterate  females.  Illiteracy  varies  also  in 
different  parts  of  the  United  States.  Nebraska  has  the 
least,  2.3  per  cent. ;  Louisiana  has  the  most,  38.5  per  cent. 
Attention  has  been  directed  2  to  the  fact  that,  as  re- 
gards white  children  between  the  ages  of  5  and  14,  71 
per  cent,  of  those  born  of  foreign  parents  were  attending 
schools,  as  against  66  per  cent,  of  those  born  of  native 
parents.  It  is,  of  course,  creditable  to  the  foreign  ele- 
ment that  the  children  are  anxious  to  obtain  an 
education,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  most  of  the 
recent  immigration  has  settled  in  the  Northern  and 
Eastern  States  where  the  educational  system  is  the  most 
developed,  the  laws  against  the  employment  of  children 
the  most  strict,  and  the  difficulty  of  evading  the  compul- 
sory education  law  the  most  pronounced.  If  we  consider 
secondary  education,  that  is  of  children  from  15  to  20 
years  of  age,  the  percentage  of  children  of  native  white 
parents  attending  school  is  33.5,  that  of  children  of 
foreign  white  parents  22.8,  showing  that  throughout  the 
country  as  a  whole,  the  children  of  native  parents  tend 
to  receive  a  more  complete  education.  Considering  the 
white  population  of  ten  years  and  over,  it  appears  that 
the  illiteracy  of  those  of  native  parentage  was  5.7  per 
cent,  as  against  only  1.6  for  those  of  foreign  parentage. 
But,  striking  as  this  is,  it  would  not  be  safe  to  argue  from 
it  that  the  children  of  immigrants  ar.e,  everywhere,  less 
illiterate  than  those  of  natives.  The  concentration  of 
immigrants  in  certain  States  above  mentioned  in  connec- 
tion with  school  attendance,  would  account  largely  for 

2O.  P.  Austin,  "The  New  Immigration,"  in  North  American 
Review,  vol.   178,  p.  565    (Apr.   1904). 


Social  Effects  141 

the  low  illiteracy  of  their  children.  The  figures  for  chil- 
dren of  natives  and  of  foreigners,  for  example,  are,  in 
New  York  State,  1.3  and  i.i ;  in  Massachusetts,  0.5 
and  1.2;  in  Pennsylvania,  2.5  and  1.6;  in  Texas,  5.1 
and  13.2. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  illiteracy  of  the  foreign- 
born  from  ten  to  fourteen  years  of  age  is  5.6  per  cent., 
while  among  those  65  years  of  age  and  over  it  is  19.3 
per  cent.  Undoubtedly  this  is  due  to  two  factors,  the 
recent  spread  of  popular  education  in  Europe,  and  the 
opportunities  provided  by  our  educational  institutions 
for  the  children  of  foreign-born  immigrants. 

In  estimating  the  probable  effect  of  immigration  on 
illiteracy,  it  will  be  useful  to  consider  for  a  moment  con- 
ditions in  Europe.  The  following  is  the  general 
illiteracy  for  European  nations : 3 

Category  of 
COUNTRIEI  Percent.  Population 

German    Empire o.n  Male 

Sweden    and    Norway o.n 

Denmark 0.54 

Finland 1.60  &  female 

over  10  yrs. 

Switzerland 0.30 

Scotland 3.57  &  female 

Netherlands 4.00 

England 5.80  "    &  female 

France 4.90 

Belgium 12.80 

Austria 23.80 

Ireland 17.00  '    &  female 

Hungary 28.10 

Greece 30.00  **    &  female 

Italy 38.30 

Portugal 79.00  '    &  female 

Spain 68.10 

Russia 61.70 

Servia 86.00 

Roumania 89.00 

3  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  1900, 
P.  785. 


142          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

These  figures  are  based  on  returns  dating  from  li 
to  1897,  most  of  them  being  for  1896.  In  some  coun- 
tries an  improvement  has  doubtless  been  made  since  the 
figures  were  compiled. 

Although  immigrants  are  usually  of  the  lower  and 
more  ignorant  classes,  there  is  a  certain  general  corre- 
spondence between  their  illiteracy  and  that  of  the 
countries  from  which  they  come.  This  means  that  re- 
cent immigration,  though  it  has  not  checked  the  general 
spread  of  education  in  the  United  States,  has  retarded 
the  movement,  and  has  imposed  a  heavier  educational 
burden  upon  the  country  than  would  have  been  imposed 
by  the  immigration  of  kindred  races.  Thus,  while  the 
native  white  illiteracy  has  diminished  from  8.7  per  cent, 
in  1880  to  4.6  per  cent  in  1900,  the  foreign  white  illiter- 
acy has  increased  from  12  per  cent,  to  12.9  per  cent.,  and 
the  total  white  illiteracy  has  decreased  only  from  9.4  per 
cent,  to  6.2  per  cent.  That  the  general  illiteracy  has 
thus  decreased  in  spite  of  immigration,  is  striking  testi- 
mony to  the  efficiency  of  our  public  school  system.  In 
1890,  as  compared  with  900,000  foreign-born  of  school 
age  there  were  12,400,000  of  the  second  generation  of 
school  age;  and  the  fact  that  in  Massachusets  in  1900 
the  illiteracy  of  the  foreign-born  was  15  per  cent.,  as 
compared  with  0.8  per  cent,  for  the  native-born,  shows 
the  effect  of  our  educational  facilities  upon  the  children 
of  foreigners. 

We  notice  at  once  that  the  countries  from  which  the 
United  States  received  the  bulk  of  its  immigrants  before 
1880  are,  with  the  exception  of  Ireland,  those  which 
have  a  lower  illiteracy  than  the  United  States  at  the 
present  time ;  and  that  the  German  Empire,  Scandinavia, 
Finland,  Switzerland,  Scotland  and  the  Netherlands  are 
the  only  countries  having  a  lower  general  illiteracy  than 


Social  Effects  143 

the  native  whites  of  the  United  States  over  ten  years  of 
age.  On  the  other  hand,  we  note  that  the  countries  from 
which  we  have  received  our  principal  immigration  since 
1880,  namely,  Austria-Hungary,  Italy,  Poland,  and 
Russia,  have  a  relatively  high  illiteracy — frequently  two 
or  three  times  as  high  as  that  of  even  the  foreign  whites 
in  the  United  States  over  ten  years  of  age. 

Remembering  that  the  figures  as  to  illiteracy,  based 
as  they  are  on  the  unverified  statements  of  immigrants 
themselves,  are  extremely  untrustworthy,  let  us  now 
consider  the  probable  effect  of  the  present  immigration. 
The  author  has  several  times  been  allowed,  through  the 
courtesy  of  government  officials,  to  make  practical  tests 
of  the  ability  of  immigrants  to  read  and  write,  and  in 
nearly  every  instance  many  cases  of  false  representation 
of  literacy  were  disclosed.  Immigrants  have  a  theory 
that  they  are  more  likely  to  be  admitted  if  they  are 
thought  to  be  able  to  read  and  write,  and  the  agitation 
for  an  illiteracy  test  makes  it  for  the  interest  of  the 
transportation  companies  to  have  returns  indicate  as 
small  a  proportion  of  illiterates  as  possible.  Once  or 
twice  an  educational  test  bill  before  Congress  has  been 
reported  by  foreign  newspapers  as  actually  enacted,  and 
this  has  doubtless  contributed  to  the  feeling  of  steerage 
passengers  upon  the  subject. 

As  we  have  already  seen,4  the  general  illiteracy  of 
immigrants  is  less  than  formerly;  but  it  is  undoubtedly 
much  greater  than  it  would  be  if  immigration  to-day 
had  the  same  racial  composition  it  had  before  1880.  In 
other  words,  illiteracy  has  diminished  in  the  United 
States  and  in  the  countries  of  northern  and  western 
Europe  much  faster  than  it  has  in  the  general  body  of 
immigration  to  this  country.  A  good  illustration  of 
4  Chapter  v.,  A. 


144  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

what  might  have  happened  if  the  racial  composition  of 
immigration  had  not  changed  is  furnished  by  Italy.  The 
earlier  immigration  from  Italy  came  from  the  northern 
States ;  the  present  immigration  is  chiefly  from  the 
southern  States.  In  Piedmonte,  one  of  the  principal 
States  of  northern  Italy,  from  which  the  emigration  to 
this  country  was  576  persons  in  1895,  the  illiteracy 
among  the  married  men  was  8  per  cent.,  and  the  propor- 
tion of  children  in  the  elementary  schools  was  12.8  per 
cent. ;  in  Campania,  one  of  the  principal  States  of  south- 
ern Italy,  from  which  the  emigration  was  13,469,  the 
illiteracy  of  the  married  men  was  51  per  cent.,  and  the 
proportion  of  children  in  the  elementary  schools  was  6.4 
per  cent.5 

Somewhat  akin  to  the  question  of  illiteracy  and  there- 
fore suitable  for  consideration  in  connection  with  it,  is 
the  ability  of  immigrants  to  speak  English.6  The  tabu- 
lation of  persons  unable  to  speak  English  was  first  made 
in  the  census  of  1890.  The  census  of  1900  shows  that 
there  were  at  that  date  of  foreign  white  persons  10  years 
of  age  and  over  who  could  speak  English  1,217,280, 
or  12.2  per  cent,  of  the  total  of  such  persons  in  the 
country. 

As  there  was,  down  to  1880,  a  very  large  immigration 
from  the  United  Kingdom,  and  there  still  is  an  appreci- 
able immigration  from  that  kingdom  as  well  as  from 
the  English-speaking  part  of  Canada,  allowance  must  be 
made  for  the  foreign-born  who  speak  English  as  their 
mother  tongue.  If  we  allow  24.5  per  cent,  for  these 
persons,  the  percentage  of  other  foreign-born  who  were 
unable  to  speak  English  was  18.3  per  cent,  in  1900  and 

5  Statement  of  Luigi  Bodio,  Italian  Director  of  Statistics.     See 
Baltimore  Herald,  May  2,  1897. 

6  Twelfth  Census,  1900,  vol.  2,  pp.  cxxiii,  ff. 


Social  Effects  145 

25  per  cent,  in  1890.  The  States  having  the  largest  pro- 
portion of  white  persons  of  foreign  parentage  10  years 
old  and  over  were,  first,  Texas,  Arizona  and  New 
Mexico,  where  nearly  one-third  of  the  population  speak 
Spanish ;  and  second,  Florida,  where  the  same  is  true 
in  less  degree ;  and  third,  Maine  and  New  Hampshire, 
where  more  than  10  per  cent,  speak  French.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that,  in  1900,  in  Pennsylvania  there  were 
nearly  20,000  native  whites  of  native  parentage,  chiefly 
Dutch,  who  did  not  speak  English;  but  the  number  was 
less  than  one-half  what  it  was  in  1890.  The  parentage 
of  persons  over  ten  years  of  age  unable  to  speak  English 
was,  for  the  largest  number  of  those  unable  to  so  speak, 
as  follows: 

Germany 18.8 

Italy 15.3 

Poland 11.5 

Russia 7.6 

Austria 7.3 

French  Canada 7.0 

The  ability  to  speak  English  is  nearly  as  important 
as  that  of  being  able  to  read  a  foreign  language.  It  ap- 
pears that  in  the  year  1901  there  were  nearly  1300  news- 
papers published  in  foreign  languages  in  the  United 
States.  By  far  the  greater  number  of  these  were  German, 
but  there  were  also  a  considerable  number  of  French, 
Italian,  Spanish,  Norwegian,  Danish  and  Swedish.  The 
total  circulation  of  these  papers  is  doubtless  very  large, 
and  their  influence  for  assimilation  very  great.  Yet  it  is 
probable  that  these  papers  do  not  reach  a  very  large 
proportion  of  those  who  cannot  speak  English.  There 
are  no  figures  to  show  what  proportion  of  those  who 
cannot  speak  English  are  also  illiterate,  but  from  the  races 
making  up  the  non-English  speaking  class,  we  can  safely 


146          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

assume  a  considerable  percentage  of  illiteracy.  Rather, 
it  is  fair  to  assume  that  an  immigrant  who  is  intelligent 
enough  to  subscribe  to  a  foreign  newspaper  in  the 
United  States,  will  generally  feel  the  importance  of  ac- 
quiring the  language  of  the  country  in  which  he  lives ; 
and  apart  from  settlements  in  mining  regions  and  in 
some  of  the  city  colonies,  it  is  probable  that  most  of 
the  subscribers  of  these  newspapers  speak  some  Eng- 
lish. The  effect  of  inability  to  read  or  to  speak  English 
will  be  discussed  further  in  connection  with  the  ques- 
tion of  the  assimilation  of  immigrants.7 

B.    CRIME8 

We  shall  consider,  in  this  and  the  two  following 
sections,  the  extent  to  which  immigration  has  contrib- 
uted to  the  dependent  and  delinquent  classes  in  this 
country.  The  statistics  of  these  classes  in  the  census 
of  1900  are  not  yet  at  hand,  so  it  will  be  necessary  to 
use  those  of  the  census  of  1890. 

According  to  the  latter,9  it  appears  that  taking  into 
account  only  the  105,885  parents  whose  nationality  was 
known,  43.19  per  cent,  of  the  crime  committed  by  white 
persons  in  the  United  States  was  chargeable  to  the  native 
element,  and  56.81  per  cent,  to  the  foreign  element.  By 
the  same  census  the  number  of  native-born  whites  in 
penitentiaries  was  12,842.  The  number  of  those  of  for- 
eign birth  or  parentage  was  15,598,  or  54  per  cent,  of 

7  Infra,  chapter  viii.,  G. 

8  See  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.   15,  pp.  285 
ff. ;   John   R.    Commons,   in   Chautauquan,  vol.   39,   pp.    118-121 
(April,   1904)  ;   Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immi- 
gration, 1904,  pp.  48-76.     See  also  supra,  chapter  v.,  B. 

9  Compendium,  Part  II,  pp.  169,  182. 


Social  Effects  147 

the  total.  In  other  words,  the  foreign  white  element, 
which  was  two-fifths  of  the  total,  furnished  three-fifths 
of  the  white  criminals  of  the  United  States.  Professor 
Mayo-Smith  10  says : 

"From  all  the  statistics  the  conclusion  seems  to  be 
justified  that  criminality  is  somewhat  more  prevalent 
among  the  foreign-born  and  those  of  foreign  descent  than 
among  those  of  native  descent,  but  this  excess  is  not 
so  great  as  to  enable  us  to  say  that  the  influence  of 
migration  is  to  increase  the  tendency  of  crime." 

It  would  thus  appear  that,  just  as  in  the  case  of 
illiteracy,  the  foreign-born  tend  to  keep  up  the  average 
criminality,  while  the  criminality  of  the  native  element 
tends  to  diminish. 

The  following  tables  show  in  a  general  way  the  pro- 
portion of  native-born  and  foreign-born  criminals  at 
various  decades.  It  should  be  remembered  that  these 
figures  are  based  upon  very  imperfect  data,  and  that  the 
increase  of  crime  in  the  "  native-born "  is  probably 
due  in  large  part  to  the  criminal  children  of  immigrants, 
who,  as  we  have  seen,  are  largely  in  excess  of  their 
normal  proportion. 


DECADE 
1850  . 

Native 
born  in 
population 

.  .  .  .      90.32 

Native 
born 
criminal! 

64.21 

Foreign 
born  in 
population 

9.08 

Foreign 
born 
criminals 

35-79 

i860    .    .    . 

.    ..      86.84 

53.14 

I3.l6 

46.86 

1870  .... 

.  .  .  .      85.56 

7347 

14.44 

26.53 

I880     .... 

86.68 

78.15 

13.32 

21.85 

I800  .  . 

85.23 

7Q.QI 

14-77 

20.00 

Even  as  far  back  as  1850  there  was  one  native  criminal 

10  Publications  of   the  American  Statistical  Association,  new 
series,  No.  24,  p.  447  (Dec.  1893). 


148  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

in     1619    natives,  and    one    foreign    criminal    in    154 
foreigners.11 

As  the  average  age  of  foreigners  is  higher  than  that 
of  natives,  and  criminals  are  largely  adults,  there  is 
great  danger  of  drawing  hasty  conclusions  as  to  the 
criminality  of  the  two  classes.12  Thus,  if  we  consider 
merely  the  total  of  persons  without  reference  to  ages, 
it  appears  that  the  foreign-born  furnished  1768  prisoners 
per  million  as  against  898  for  native-born.  Professor 

11  Sydney  G.  Fisher,  in  Forum,  vol.  14,  p.  610  (Jan.  1893). 
The  following  tables  from  the  census  of  1890  throw  additional 

light  upon  this  matter : 

Percentage  of  increase  of  the  total  native  and  foreign-born 
criminals  1850-1890: 

1850  to             1860  to  1870  to        1880  to 

CLASS                                                    1860                  1870  1880              1890 

Total  criminals 183.3               72-3  78.1             40.4 

Native-born   134.4             138.3  89.4             43.6 

Foreign-born 270.9                 2.40*  46.7             29.1 

*  Immigration  fell  off  about   n  per  cent,   during  the  war  period. 

Percentage  of  white  native  and  foreign  criminals  and  juvenile 
offenders,  1890: 

Native-  Foreign- 
CLASS                                                                                     born  born 

Total  white  criminals 71.7  28.2 

Total  white  juvenile  offenders 88.7  11.3 

Percentage  of  white  native  and  foreign-born  criminals  and 
juvenile  offenders  by  parentage,  1890: 

Both  parents  Both  parents 
CLASS                                                                                       native  foreign 

Total    white    criminals 42.4  57.6 

Total    white   juvenile    offenders 37.7  62.3 

Percentage  of  illiteracy  among  white  criminals  by  nativity  and 
parentage,  1890: 

CLASS  Illiterate* 

Total   criminals    27.8 

Total    white    criminals 13.4 

Total    white    native-born     criminals 10.3 

Total   white    foreign-born   criminals 20.6 

Total   white   criminals,    both    parents    native 38.7 

Total  white  criminals,  both  parents  foreign 61.2 

12  See     Professor    Commons,    "  Racial    Composition    of    the 
American  People,"  in  Chautauquan,  vol.  39,  p.  118  (Apr.  1904)  ; 
also  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  x,  Ixix. 


Social  Effects  149 

Commons  considers  it  fairer  to  compare  the  number  of 
male  prisoners  with  the  males  of  voting  age.  On  this 
basis,  for  1890,  the  foreign-born  whites  furnished  3270 
prisoners  per  million  as  against  3145  for  the  native 
whites,  an  excess  of  only  5  per  cent,  of  the  total  pris- 
oners.13 It  must  be  insisted,  however,  that  the  question, 
as  it  regards  this  country,  is  not  entirely  whether  one 
race  is  normally  more  or  less  criminal  than  another,  but 
whether  our  burdens  are  increased  by  the  coming  of 
criminally-inclined  persons.  We  might  endure  the 
criminality  of  the  adult  immigrants  with  more  com- 
posure, if  we  had  any  assurance  that  their  children 
would  be  as  orderly  as  the  native-born.  But  we  find  just 
the  opposite  to  be  the  fact.  Comparing  again  the  male 
prisoners  with  the  males  of  voting  age,  we  find  6742 
native-born  white  prisoners  of  foreign  parentage,  which 
shows  that  this  element  furnishes  three  times  as  many 
criminals  as  those  of  native  birth  and  parentage,  and 
more  than  twice  as  many  as  the  foreign-born.  The 
children  of  immigrants  are  therefore  twice  as  dangerous 
and  troublesome  as  the  immigrants  themselves. 

Again,  if  we  compare  the  male  juvenile  offenders  with 
the  male  population  of  school  age  (5-20  years)  for  the 
North  Atlantic  Division,  where  juvenile  prisoners  are 
more  segregated  into  reformatories  than  in  other  parts 
of  the  country,  we  find  14  that  the  native  whites  of  native 
parentage  furnished  855  prisoners  per  million,  as 
against  2740  native  whites  of  foreign  parentage,  and 
2252  foreign  whites. 

13  Cp.  John  J.  D.  Trenor,  "  Proposals  affecting  Immigration," 
in  Annals  of  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science, 
vol.  24,  p.  228  ff.     (July,  1004). 

14  The   author   is   indebted   for  these   facts   to   the   article   of 
Professor  Commons  above  cited. 


150          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

In  other  words,  the  native-born  children  of  immi- 
grants are  more  criminal  than  immigrant  children,  and 
more  than  three  times  as  criminal  as  the  native  children. 
When  we  already  have  the  problem  of  the  negro,  who 
is  six  times  as  criminal  as  the  native  white  of  native 
parentage,  if  we  consider  adults,  and  twelve  times  as 
criminal  if  we  consider  juvenile  offenders,  it  seems  un- 
safe to  allow  the  further  introduction  of  disorderly 
elements  into  our  population. 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  statistics  of  the 
subject  have  not  been  more  complete  in  the  past.  Any 
census  based  upon  the  number  of  prisoners  at  a  given 
time,  though  it  may  give  a  correct  idea  of  the  burden 
on  the  community,  exaggerates  the  crimes  for  which 
the  longer  sentences  are  imposed,  and  takes  little  or  no 
account  of  those  for  which  lesser  sentences  are  given. 
Yet  the  community  may  suffer  more  from  forty-four 
persons  serving  sentences  of  three  months  or  less — who 
might  not  be  counted  in  the  census  at  all — than  from 
one  criminal  serving  a  sentence  of  eleven  years,  who 
would  appear  in  two  censuses.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
census  exaggerates  the  importance  of  petty  crimes  by 
including  the  petty  criminals  in  jail  at  the  date  of  its 
taking. 

It  appears  that,  in  1904,  the  foreign-born  in  the  public 
penal,  reformatory,  and  charitable  institutions  of  the 
United  States  were  28  per  cent,  of  the  total  inmates ;  the 
foreign-born  population,  in  1900,  having  been  14  per 
cent,  of  the  total  population.143  The  following  table, 
compiled  from  the  report  of  the  Massachusetts  Prison 
Commissioners  for  the  year  ending  September  30,  1894, 
shows  first,  the  number  of  commitments  furnished  by 

14a  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1905, 
p.  62. 


Social  Effects 

each  one  thousand  persons  born  in  the  countries  named, 
and  second,  the  same  thing  leaving  out  commitments 
for  drunkenness.  For  purposes  of  comparison,  the  per- 
centage of  illiteracy  of  immigrants  fourteen  years  and 
over  for  the  year  1896  is  given : 

No.  per  m.  Illiteracy 

No.  per  m.  lets  drunks.  ('896} 

Germany 6.2  3.6  2.4 

Scandinavia 12.3  5.1  l.O 

Scotland 19.6  5.8  4.6 

France 14.7  6.1  4.2 

Ireland 27.2  7.1  6.5 

England 20.6  7.2  4.4 

Russia   (Jews) 9.5  7.9  32.1 

Austria 15.6  10.4  36.4 

Hungary 15.4  15.4  46.5 

Poland 20.9  16.0  47.8 

Italy 20.9  18.2  46.1 

Native  born 7.7  2.7 

Foreign  born 18.2  5.4 

It  will  be  observed  that,  according  to  this  table,  the 
general  criminality  of  the  foreign-born  is  two  and  one- 
half  times  that  of  the  native-born,  and,  considering 
other  crimes  than  drunkenness,  it  is  exactly  twice  as 
great.  It  will  also  be  observed  that,  in  a  general  way, 
there  is  a  parallel  progression  of  criminality  other  than 
drunkenness  and  illiteracy.  The  latter  feature  will  be 
again  referred  to  when  we  come  to  consider  proposed 
remedies  for  the  evils  of  immigration. 

That  certain  races  settling  in  certain  sections  of  the 
country  develop  alarming  criminal  tendencies  is  a  con- 
spicuous fact.  Cesare  Lombroso,  the  noted  criminolo- 
gist,  writing  of  the  increase  of  homicide  in  the  United 
States,15  speaks  of  the  relatively  large  proportion  of 
homicides  among  miners,  namely  3.2  per  cent.,  while 
in  the  community  at  large  it  is  but  1.6  per  cent. ;  and 

15  In  North  American  Review,  vol.  166,  p.  9  (Jan.  1898). 


152  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

he  attributes  this  to  the  laborious  nature  of  their  toil, 
their  addiction  to  the  use  of  alcoholic  liquors,  and  to  the 
light  esteem  in  which  they  hold  human  life.  He  insists 
on  the  need  of  adequate  immigration  legislation  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  35  per  cent,  of  the  homicides  in  the 
United  States  are  committed  by  foreigners  of  no 
education. 

In  Schuylkill  County,  Pennsylvania,  the  total  popula- 
tion in  1900  was  about  48,000,  of  whom  30,000  were 
native-born;  yet  the  commitments  to  prison  in  that 
county  during  the  year  1901  were  326  for  the  foreign- 
born,  as  against  322  for  the  native-born,  the  largest 
number  for  any  given  nationality  being  236  for  natives 
of  Russia  and  Poland.  Of  sixty  cases  of  assault  and 
battery  in  the  Schuylkill  County  Criminal  Court  in  one 
session  of  1897,  fifty  were  of  Poles  and  Hungarians.16 

Turning  now  to  other  specific  parts  of  the  country, 
some  significant  facts  can  be  cited.  In  the  anthracite 
regions  it  appears  that  although  the  population  in- 
creased 25.4  per  cent,  from  1880  to  1890,  convictions 
increased  34.1  per  cent.;  and  although  the  Slav  popula- 
tion increased  45  per  cent.,  Slav  criminals  increased  69.2 
per  cent.17  This  was  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  con- 
victions are  exceedingly  difficult  to  obtain.  One  medical 
expert  who  testified  in  seventeen  murder  cases  reports 
that  in  not  one  was  the  criminal  convicted.18 

Another  region  where  foreign  lawlessness  is  espe- 
cially evident  is  the  city  of  New  York.  In  1892,  the 
authorities  reported  that  39  per  cent,  of  all  the  persons 
in  the  penitentiary,  74  per  cent,  of  those  in  the  city 

16  See  Philadelphia  Enquirer,  March  16,  1897. 

17  Peter  Roberts,  Anthracite  Coal  Communities,  pp.  275,  282 

18  Henry  Rood,  in  Forum,  vol.   14,  pp.   110-122,  especially  pp. 
118,  119  (Sept.    1892), 


Social  Effects  153 

prison,  and  59  per  cent,  of  those  in  the  workhouse,  were 
of  foreign  birth ;  and  the  Superintendent  of  the  Work- 
house estimated  that  90  per  cent,  of  the  native-born 
therein  were  of  foreign  parentage.19  The  proportion 
of  the  foreign-born  in  New  York  City  in  1890  was  42.2 
per  cent.;  in  1902,  37.1  per  cent.  During  the  year 
1902,  in  the  City  Magistrates'  Court  of  the  first  division, 
which  is  situated  in  the  Irish  quarter,  out  of  55,125  per- 
sons held  for  trial  or  summarily  tried  and  convicted, 
27,031  were  born  in  foreign  countries.  Of  these,  it  is 
remarkable  to  note  that,  in  1900,  the  total  Greek  popula- 
tion of  New  York  was  given  as  1309,  and  in  the  year 
1902,  1678  Greeks  were  held  in  these  courts  as  above 
described.  The  arrests  were  largely  for  the  violation  of 
corporation  ordinances,  and  not  for  crimes  of  a  serious 
nature;  nevertheless,  it  is  a  remarkable  indication  of 
ignorance  of,  or  indifference  to,  law.  In  the  report 
of  the  Five  Points  House  of  Industry 20  it  is  stated 
that  of  378  cases,  the  parents  of  116,  or  less  than 
one-third,  were  of  American  birth,  and  in  262  instances 
the  parents  were  of  alien  birth.  The  report  of  the 
Society  for  the  Reformation  of  Juvenile  Delinquents 
(House  of  Refuge),  for  the  78th  year,  shows  that 
430  children  were  received,  of  whom  135  were  Amer- 
ican (94  white  and  41  colored),  the  remaining  being 
of  foreign  birth.  It  might  be  interesting  to  know  how 
many  of  those  classified  as  Americans  were  of  Amer- 
ican-born parents.  The  Seventh  Special  Report  of 
the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor  shows  that 
the  proportion  of  those  of  foreign  birth  or  parentage 
in  the  slums  of  New  York  City  was  95  per  cent.,  and 

19  Charles  S.   Smith,  in  North  American  Review,  vol.  154,  p. 
436  (Apr.    1892). 
2°  Vol.  46,  p.  12, 


The  Effects  of  Immigration 

that  51.1  per  cent,  of  these  were  from  southern  and 
eastern  Europe.  A  New  York  City  magistrate  has  re- 
cently said: 

"  I  have  been  particularly  disturbed  by  the  growth 
of  faginism  of  children  on  the  East  Side.  Some  of  these 
children  are  immigrants  and  some  are  the  children  born 
here  from  immigrants.  It  has  been  particularly  severe 
in  that  section  of  the  city  among  the  Jews,  Roumanians, 
and  Poles,  and  I  do  not  find  it  existing  in  any  other  part 
of  the  city." 

While  conditions  are  not  so  strongly  marked  in  Massa- 
chusetts, they  are  similar.  For  the  year  ending  Septem- 
ber 30,  1894,  of  the  total  commitments  during  the  year  to 
all  the  prisons,  85  per  cent,  were  persons  of  foreign 
parentage  and  49  per  cent,  of  foreign  birth,  while  the 
foreign-born  population  in  1890  was  only  29  per  cent,  of 
the  total  population.  For  the  year  1895  in  Massachusetts 
the  total  commitments  to  all  prisons  were  26,423.  The 
number  of  those  of  American  birth  and  parentage  was 
4087,  and  of  foreign-born  12,781,  and  of  those  of  foreign 
birth  and  parentage  22,134.  From  these  figures  it  would 
appear  that  the  foreign-born,  who  were  less  than  one-third 
of  the  total  population,  furnished  three  times  as  many 
prisoners  as  those  of  native  birth  and  parentage,  and  that 
the  foreign  element  furnished  five  times  as  many  crimi- 
nals as  the  native  element.  It  also  appears  that  the  second 
generation,  that  is,  those  of  American  birth  and  foreign 
parentage,  furnished  five-sixths  as  many  criminals  as 
the  foreign-born  themselves.  Considering  the  matter  of 
drunkenness,  as  shown  in  the  statistics  of  all  Massachu- 
setts prisons  for  the  same  year,  it  appears  that  the 
foreign-born  furnished  more  than  three  times  as  many 
commitments  for  this  cause  as  the  natives. 

Although    the    greatest    burden    on  the   community 


Social  Effects 

doubtless  comes  from  those  committing  the  lesser  crimes 
more  frequently,  and  from  the  drunkenness  and  general 
lawlessness  of  certain  classes  of  the  foreign-born,  it  is 
the  homicides  and  anarchists  who  attract  most  public 
attention.  The  names  of  the  injured  in  the  Haymarket 
outrages  in  Chicago  were  nearly  all  outlandishly  foreign, 
though  one  of  the  leaders  was  a  native  American. 
Later  came  the  Italian  agitation  in  New  Orleans  fol- 
lowed by  lynching,  which  was  the  subject  of  much 
correspondence  between  the  United  States  and  the 
Italian  government.  There  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that 
the  Mafia  and  kindred  societies  of  violence  and  crime 
exist  in  the  United  States.21  In  the  West,  various 
crimes  are  attributed  from  time  to  time  to  the  Chinese 
"  Highbinder  "  societies  or  "  Tongs."  It  is  probable  that 
in  many  cases  these  foreign  "  societies  "  are  not  really 
such,  but  are  groups  of  desperate  men  whose  character 
and  fortunes  unite  them  for  certain  crimes.  To  meet 
the  universal  perjury  of  such  people  and  to  secure  con- 
victions an  efficient  secret  police  of  the  nationality  in 
question  seems  to  be  indispensable. 

It  is  probable  also  that  the  number  of  radical  social- 
ists and  anarchists  in  this  country  is  not  large ;  yet  from 
time  to  time  foreign-born  anarchists  have  attracted  much 
attention,  and  in  the  Act  of  1903  they  were  placed 
among  the  excluded  classes.  This  Act  specifies  "anar- 
chists, or  persons  who  believe  in  or  advocate  the 
overthrow  by  force  or  violence  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  or  of  all  government  or  of  all  forms  of 

21  Henry  Rood,  in  Forum,  vol.  14,  p.  119  (Sept.  1892); 
Broughton  Brandenburg,  "  The  Truth  about  the  Mafia,"  in 
Collier's  Weekly,  vol.  34,  p.  15  (Dec.  10,  1904)  ;  Henry  Cabot 
Lodge,  "  Lynch  Law  and  Unrestricted  Immigration,"  in  North 
American  Review,  vol.  152,  pp.  602-612  (Jan.  1891). 


156          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

law,  or  the  assassination  of  public  officials,"  and  also 
provides  that  such  persons  shall  not  be  naturalized.22 
What  has  been  said  as  to  the  difficulty  of  detecting-  con- 
victs by  inspection  at  the  ports  of  landing,  applies  as 
well  to  anarchists.  Those  who  disbelieve  in  government 
and  law  are  not  likely  to  scruple  to  evade  regulations  of 
this  character,  and  such  legislation  is  a  foolish  attempt 
to  strain  out  such  gnats  while  swallowing  the  camel  of 
ignorant  and  degraded  material  out  of  which  criminals 
and  anarchists  are  made. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  anarchy  and  socialism 
are  the  result  of  a  certain  degeneracy  of  race,  and  that 
those  who  come  to  us  from  a  condition  bordering  upon 
serfdom  are  least  capable  of  distinguishing  between 
liberty  and  anarchy.  "  The  anarchist  and  ultra-socialist 
do  not,  as  is  commonly  supposed,  derive  their  chief 
support  from  the  Teutonic  element;  their  ranks  are 
rather  recruited  from  among  these  members  of  the 
Semitic  and  Slavonic  races." 23  The  increase  of  the 
socialist  vote  in  certain  districts  of  the  East  Side  of 
New  York,  through  th'e  growth  of  the  Semitic,  Polish 
and  Hungarian  population  in  those  districts,  would  seem 
to  confirm  this  view. 

C.    INSANITY  AND  DISEASE  24 

The  census  of  1890  showed  that,  not  counting  the 
feeble  minded  and  idiots,  33.2  per  cent,  of  the  insane 
in  the  United  States  were  of  foreign  birth,  as  compared 

22  For  an   argument  against  this  clause,   see  Ernest   Crosby, 
"  How   the   United    States    Curtails   Freedom   of   Thought,"    in 
North  American  Review,  vol.  178,  pp.  571-616  (Apr.  1904). 

23  A.  H.  Hyde,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  voL  52,  p.  397 
(Jan.  1898). 

24  Cp.  supra,  chapter  v.,  B, 


Social  Effects  157 

with  28.8  per  cent,  in  1880.  As  the  foreign-born  con- 
stituted in  1890  only  14.77  Per  cent,  of  the  total  popula- 
tion, they  furnished  two  and  one-third  times  their 
normal  proportion  of  insane.  From  a  statistical 
standpoint  it  is  no  doubt  true  that  a  part  of  this  propor- 
tion is  due  to  the  greater  average  age  of  the  foreign- 
born  and  to  the  hardships  incident  to  a  new  environment. 
Thus  the  facts  that  in  Minnesota  the  Scandinavians,  who 
in  1886  constituted  16.5  per  cent,  of  the  population,  fur- 
nished in  1886  28.3  per  cent  of  the  insane,  and  in  1890 
30.7  per  cent,  of  the  insane,  are  to  be  explained  by 
the  changed  environment  and  isolation  of  the  farmers 
and  the  severity  of  their  initial  struggles  in  a  new 
country.25 

But  whatever  the  causes  may  be,  the  burden  remains 
the  same,  and  it  is  a  severe  one.  In  March,  1904,  rep- 
resentatives of  the  New  York  State  Lunacy  Commission 
represented  strongly  to  the  Department  of  Commerce 
and  Labor  the  need  of  more  stringent  regulations  to 
prevent  the  landing  of  foreign-born  insane ;  and  they 
further  reported  that,  in  the  Greater  New  York  district, 
60  per  cent,  of  the  insane  patients  were  foreign-born. 

Passing  now  to  the  subject  of  disease,  it  is  clear  that 
immigrants  have  been  the  cause  of  epidemics,  and  of 
the  spread  of  much  infection.  It  is  asserted  that  they 
have  caused  14  out  of  the  19  epidemics  of  small-pox  in 
Chicago  since  1863,  and  that  to  them  was  due  the  preva- 
lence of  small-pox  in  New  York  in  1902. 26 

In  the  fall  of  1903  an  epidemic  of  trachoma,  spread 
by  immigrant  children,  affected  10  per  cent,  of  all  the 
children  in  the  schools  of  Manhattan,  and  required  the 

25  K.  C.  Babcock,  in  Forum,  vol.  14,  pp.  108,  109  (Sept.  1892). 

26  Statement  of  the  Health  Commissioner  of  Chicago,  quoted 
in  American  Medicine  (Philadelphia),  Nov.  22,  1902, 


158  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

expenditure  of  $250,000  to  stamp  it  out.  In  1904,  fines 
were  imposed  upon  the  steamship  companies  for  bring- 
ing 310  diseased  persons,  chiefly  afflicted  with  trachoma. 
Favus  and  trachoma  were  practically  unknown  in  the 
United  States  before  the  immigration  from  southern  and 
eastern  Europe. 

The  foreign-born  are  also  placing  so  great  a  burden 
on  our  hospitals  that  the  money  contributed  to  support 
these  institutions  is  no  longer  sufficient.  It  has  been 
stated  recently  that  twenty  of  the  principal  hospitals  of 
New  York  City  showed  an  annual  aggregate  deficit  of 
about  $450,000.  The  Thirty-fifth  Annual  Report  of 
the  Presbyterian  Hospital,  one  of  the  best  in  the  city, 
shows  that  the  total  operating  expenses  for  the 
year  were  $213,539.86,  and  that,  of  the  3026  patients 
cared  for,  1417  or  nearly  one-half  were  of  foreign 
birth.  This  hospital  had  a  deficit  of  $58,504.88,  or 
about  one-quarter  of  the  total  operating  cost.  It  seems, 
therefore,  that  but  for  the  burden  of  aliens  receiving 
free  treatment,  this  hospital  would  have  had  a 
surplus.  From  the  report  of  the  Lying-in  Hospital 
for  its  iO4th  year  it  appears  that  of  2595  out- 
door patients  treated,  2280  were  foreign-born,  and 
of  696  in-door  patients  436  were  foreign-born.  This 
institution  showed  a  deficit  of  nearly  $9O,ooo.27  During 
the  ten  years,  1885-1894,  the  total  admissions  to  the  hos- 
pitals of  New  York  City,  excepting  the  children's,  were 
282,928.  Of  these,  63.7  per  cent,  were  foreign-born, 
and  probably  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  remainder 
were  of  foreign  parentage.28 

During  the  ten  years  above-mentioned  it  appears  that 

27  Publication  of  the  Immigration  Restriction  League,  No.  40. 

28  The  following  table  shows  the  nationality  of  the  foreign-born 
admissions  to  the  hospitals  and  insane  hospitals  of  New  York 


Social  Effects 

the  percentages  for  England  and  Ireland  in  the  hospitals 
decreased,  while  those  for  Russia  and  Austria-Hungary 
increased.  The  Irish  and  Germans,  constituting  about 
one-quarter  of  the  total  population  of  the  city,  furnished 
more  than  one-half  of  the  insane,  while  during  the  ten 
years  the  proportions  from  Sweden,  Russia  and  Austria- 
Hungary  have  doubled. 

In  addition  to  hospital  cases,  the  numbers  seeking 
charitable  relief  because  of  illness  have  largely  increased 
as  a  result  of  recent  immigration.  Tuberculosis  is  be- 
coming endemic  in  certain  sections  of  our  large  cities. 
In  1895  only  2  per  cent,  of  the  applicants  for  aid  to  the 
United  Hebrew  Charities  of  New  York  City  were  tuber- 
culous ;  in  1902  the  percentage  had  increased  to  4.8,  and 
of  all  those  seeking  medical  treatment  18.5  per  cent. 
were  consumptive.29  The  illiteracy  of  recent  immi- 
grants and  their  general  ignorance  and  uncleanliness 
are  potent  factors  in  their  spreading  of  this  and  other 
diseases.  Immigrants  are  not  only  indifferent  to  sani- 
tary regulations,  but  many  cannot  even  read  the  board 
of  health  notices  circulated  for  their  benefit.  The 
spread  of  yellow  fever  in  New  Orleans  in  the  summer 

City  during  1885-1895.  It  is  taken  from  an  article  by  Byron  C. 
Mathews,  in  Forum,  vol.  26,  p.  622  (Jan.  1899). 

Insane 
Hospitals  Hospitals 

Ireland     35-5                         35-S 

Germany      1 1.4                          20.0 

England     4.2                           3.4 

Scotland    i.a 

Russia     2.0 

Austria-Hungary     1.9 

France     1.3 

Sweden     f-s-r^  i.o 

All    others 8.6                          7.2 

29  Dr.  H.  L.  Shively,  in  New  York  Medical  Journal,  vol.  77,  p. 
225  (Feb.  7,  1903).  Cp.  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Tubercu- 
losis in  Twenty-eighth  Annual  Report  of  the  United  Hebrew 
Charities,  pp.  35-42  (1002). 


160  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

of  1905  is  said  to  have  been  largely  due  to  the  resistance 
of  recent  Italian  immigrants  to  proper  sanitary 
measures.30 

Probably  the  worst  effect  of  immigration  upon  the 
public  health  is  not  the  introduction  or  spread  of  acute 
diseases,  but  of  large  numbers  of  persons  of  poor 
physique,  who  tend  to  lower  the  general  vigor  of  the 
community.  This  matter  will  be  considered  more  fully 
hereafter  in  connection  with  proposed  legislation.31 

As  in  the  case  of  criminals,  the  exclusion  of  insane 
and  diseased  persons,  in  the  absence  of  specific  informa- 
tion, is  a  difficult  problem.  Deportation  is  likewise  hard 
to  secure  under  the  present  methods  of  registration  and 
surveillance,  and  an  increased  expenditure  for  these  pur- 
poses would  undoubtedly  effect  a  saving  to  the  com- 
munity in  the  long  run. 

D.    PAUPERISM32 

In  ascertaining  the  effect  of  immigration  upon  the 
number  of  dependents,  we  are  compelled,  as  in  the  case 
of  delinquents,  to  rely  upon  the  eleventh  census,  the 
figures  for  1900  not  being  yet  available.  According  to 
the  census  of  i89O,33  taking  into  account  only  the 
108,802  parents  whose  nationality  was  known,  41.56  per 
cent,  of  the  white  inmates  of  almshouses  in  the  United 
States  were  native,  and  58.44  per  cent,  were  foreign. 
In  other  words,  those  of  foreign  white  parentage,  who 
in  1890  were  38  per  cent,  of  the  total  white  population, 

30  See  Boston  Evening  Transcript,  Aug.  21,  1905. 

31  Chapter  xii.,  B,  "  Physical  Test." 

32  Robert    Hunter,    Poverty     ( 1904)  ;    Dr.    K.    H.    Claghorn, 
"  Immigration  in  its  Relation  to  Pauperism,"  in  Annals  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  vol.  24,  pp. 
185-205  (July,  1904). 

33  Part  II,  p.  174. 


Social  Effects  161 

furnished  58  per  cent,  of  the  white  paupers.  In  1880, 
the  foreign-born  white  population,  which  was  about  15 
per  cent,  of  the  total  white  population  furnished  37 
per  cent,  of  the  white  paupers.34 

In  1890  the  foreign-born  white  paupers  constituted 
43  per  cent,  of  the  total  white  paupers ;  the  white  paupers 
of  foreign  parentage  (both  parents  foreign)  constituted 
59.2  per  cent,  of  the  total  white  paupers  having  both 
parents  native  or  foreign.  Looking  at  the  matter  in 
another  way:  of  the  male  paupers  in  almshouses  per 
million  of  voting  population  in  the  North  Atlantic 
States  in  1890,  the  native  whites  of  native  parentage 
were  2096;  the  native  whites  of  foreign  parentage  were 
1782 ;  and  the  foreign  whites  4653.  Even  as  far  back 
as  1850  there  was  one  native  pauper  in  every  317  natives, 
and  one  foreign-born  pauper  in  every  32  foreign-born 
persons. 

The  figures  for  particular  localities  tell  the  same  story. 
In  Massachusetts  in  1895,  out  of  a  total  of  11,054  pau- 
pers, 5209  were  foreign-born.  In  other  words,  a 
foreign-born  population  which  was  30.6  per  cent,  of  the 
total  population  furnished  47.1  per  cent,  of  the  paupers.35 
In  Boston  for  the  year  ending  September  30,  1897,  of 
3050  men  given  work  in  the  men's  department  by  the 
Industrial  Aid  Society,  1710  or  56  per  cent,  were  for- 
eign-born ;  while  of  8060  persons  aided  by  the  Provident 

34  The  proportion  of  the  foreign-born,  and  of  the  foreign-born 
paupers,  at  various  decades  is  given  in  the  following  table : 

Foreign-born 

Foreign-born  paupers 

to  total  to  total 

DECADE  population  pauper* 

1850 9.7  26.7 

1860 13.1  39.1 

1870 14.4  29.7 

1880 13.3  34.7 

1890 14.8  38.9 

3n  Census  of  1895,  vol.  i,  p.  803 ;  vol.  3,  p.  379. 


162  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

Society,  5291,  or  66  per  cent.,  were  foreign-born.  In 
Pennsylvania  in  1887  a  census  of  alien  paupers  showed 
the  number  to  be  upwards  of  20,000,  costing  annually 
$i,5oo,ooo.36 

In  New  York  City  there  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of 
some  new  arrivals,  especially  the  Syrians,  to  put  their 
children  into  institutions  until  they  are  old  enough  to 
become  an  economic  gain  to  their  parents ;  and  the  Com- 
missioner-General of  Immigration  reports  that  within 
six  months  after  landing  580  aliens  were  sent  recently 
to  the  charitable  institutions  of  the  city.37 

The  bulk  of  those  dependent  upon  the  public  for 
support  are,  of  course,  the  aged  and  the  children.  As 
regards  race,  in  1890,  four-fifths  of  the  paupers  were 
British,  Irish,  and  Germans.  This  is  owing  to  the  fact 
that  the  races  which  have  come  recently  have  not  had 
time  to  find  their  way  into  public  institutions;  to  the 
relief  afforded  certain  races  by  the  charitable  organiza- 
tions of  their  kindred,  and  to  the  low  standard  of  living 
of  other  races. 

The  Hebrew  dependents  are  very  largely  taken  care 
of  by  their  own  race.  In  all  our  large  cities  there  are 
Hebrew  Charities  which  do  a  large  amount  of  relief 
work ;  but  even  their  generous  efforts  have  to  be  sup- 
plemented by  other  agencies,  and,  in  New  York  at  least, 
the  enormous  Hebrew  immigration  makes  the  problem 
of  relief  a  very  difficult  one.38 

36  Report  of  Legislative  Committee  (1887). 

37  F.  P.  Sargent,  in  Century,  vol.  67,  p.  471  (Jan.  1904). 

38  The  Twenty-seventh  Annual  Report  of  the  United  Hebrew 
Charities,  pp.  21,  29,  30  (1901)  states  the  problems  and  conditions 
of  relief  as  follows : 

"  No  matter  how  earnestly  we  labor  to  care  for  the  Jewish 
poor  already  in  our  city,  our  burdens  are  being  constantly  in- 
creased by  the  thousands  who  come  from  Europe  every  year 


Social  Effects  163 

The  case  of  the  recent  Italian  immigration  is  some- 
what different  from  that  of  the  Hebrews.  In  certain 
charity  districts  of  Boston  applications  for  relief  have 
fallen  off  almost  entirely  since  the  Italians  supplanted 
the  Irish  in  those  localities.39  Although  the  recently 
formed  Societies  for  the  Protection  of  Italian  Immi- 
grants have  in  some  instances  been  of  service  in  pro- 
curing work  for  those  out  of  employment,  the  main 

to  settle  in  our  midst.  It  is  worth  noting  in  passing  that — com- 
paratively speaking — few  of  these  newly  arrived  immigrants 
come  to  us  for  assistance  until  after  they  have  been  in  New 
York  for  a  year  or  two.  Either  they  have  sufficient  means  of 
their  own  to  bring  them  to  America  and  to  support  them  for  a 
period  after  arrival,  or  they  have  been  sent  for  by  relatives,  who 
are  able  to  give  them  assistance  for  some  time.  But  the  evil 
conditions  of  the  houses,  and  the  deteriorating  influences  of  the 
sweat  shops  of  the  great  Ghetto,  soon  work  havoc  among  these 
people,  and  after  an  interval  of  two  or  three  years  they  come  to 
us  in  numbers  for  relief.  ...  A  condition  of  chronic  poverty 
is  developing  in  the  Jewish  community  of  New  York  that  is  ap- 
palling in  its  immensity.  Forty-five  per  cent,  of  our  applicants, 
representing  between  20,000  and  25,000  human  beings,  have  been 
in  the  United  States  over  five  years ;  have  been  given  the  oppor- 
tunities for  economic  and  industrial  improvement  which  this 
country  affords,  yet  notwithstanding  all  this  have  not  managed 
to  reach  a  position  of  economic  independence.  Two  thousand 
five  hundred  and  eighty-five  of  the  new  applicants,  representing 
7  per  cent,  of  the  Jewish  immigration  to  the  United  States  dur- 
ing the  year,  found  it  necessary  to  apply  at  the  office  of  the 
United  Hebrew  Charities  within  a  short  time  after  arrival.  It 
must  be  remembered,  furthermore,  that  the  United  Hebrew 
Charities  does  not  represent  the  entire  Jewish  poverty  and  de- 
pendence that  exists  in  New  York  City. 

".  .  .  The  problem  of  the  care  of  the  Jewish  poor  in  the 
city  of  New  York  is  essentially  the  problem  of  the  immigrant, 
and  as  such  it  passes  beyond  merely  local  lines." 

89  Fifteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Associated  Chanties  of  Bos- 
ton, p.  30  (1894). 


164  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

cause  of  this  condition  is  more  far-reaching.  The 
standard  of  living  of  the  Italian  is  so  low  that  he  can 
live  even  on  the  very  low  wages  he  obtains.  One  sees 
everywhere  the  Italian  women  and  children  collecting 
wood  from  buildings  in  process  of  construction  and 
carrying  home  large  loads  for  fuel.  Fruit  and  other 
food  which  would  be  rejected  as  unfit  by  most  other 
races  furnishes  a  diet  upon  which  the  Italian  seems  to 
thrive.  His  drink  and  tobacco  bills  are  lower  than  those 
of  the  British  and  the  Germans.  All  this  has  both  a  good 
side  and  a  bad  side.  The  latter  is  not  perhaps  as  obvious 
as  the  former ;  but  it  is  clear  that  a  low  standard  of  living 
enables  the  Italian  to  underbid  other  labor  while  himself 
a  very  limited  consumer  of  the  products  of  labor.  Much 
of  the  money  saved  is,  as  we  have  seen,  sent  out  of  the 
country  or  used  to  help  the  immigration  of  fellow- 
countrymen  who  repeat  the  same  process  after  arrival. 
The  great  mobility  of  Italian  laborers  is  also  a  factor 
in  keeping  them  from  becoming  public  charges.  The 
padrone  system  gives  them  employment  almost  from 
landing  and  moves  them  about  at  the  need  of  the  con- 
tractors. In  bad  seasons  many  return  to  Italy. 

Much  of  the  pauperism  due  to  recent  immigration  is, 
therefore,  not  to  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  the  immigrants 
themselves,  but  among  those  who  are  displaced  by  their 
presence.  It  is  said  that  a  large  proportion  of  tramps  and 
professional  beggars  are  native  Americans.  Probably 
this  is  true,  and  many  of  these  wandering  outcasts 
doubtless  became  such  by  losing  their  jobs  through  the 
competition  of  lower-priced  foreign  labor. 

In  the  case  of  the  Slav  laborers,  especially  in  the 
mining  regions,  the  foreign-born  are  a  much  heavier 
direct  burden  upon  the  community.  Thus,  in  the  an- 


Social  Effects  165 

thracite  regions  the  outdoor  expense  per  capita  is  nearly 
three  times  as  great  as  the  average  for  the  State.40 

In  regard  to  the  outlook  for  a  continuance  of  pauper- 
ism, among  recent  arrivals,  a  difference  of  opinion 
exists  among  experts.  One  competent  observer  thinks 
that  the  second  generation  of  Italian,  Slavic  and  Hebrew 
immigrants  is  likely  to  furnish  fewer  dependents  than 
did  the  Irish,  Germans  and  English,  and  that  pauperism 
in  all  races  generally  ends  with  the  first  generation.41 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Associated  Charities  of  Boston 
in  its  report  for  1894  considers  the  situation  as  serious 
and  describes  it  in  the  following  language:42 

"  As  we  face  the  fact  that  nearly  all  those  applying 
to  us  were  of  foreign  birth  or  parentage,  that  they 
included  representatives  of  some  fifteen  different  na- 
tions, and  that  inefficiency  and  lack  of  capacity  were 
really  the  prevalent  difficulties,  we  feel  the  importance  of 
having  changes  made  in  our  laws  as  to  immigrants. 
This  is  a  primal  necessity.  The  recent  immigrants  have 
been,  generally  speaking,  much  inferior  to  those  who 
came  in  earlier  times.  They  are  lowering  the  average 
standard  of  citizenship  in  our  country,  and  such  immi- 
gration must  be  checked  before  we  can  adequately  deal 
with  the  problems  of  pauperism  and  crime  in  our  cities." 

It  may  be  pointed  out  that  technical  pauperism  is  but 
one  sign  of  general  poverty  and  degradation,  and  that, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Italians,  above  noted,  its  decrease 
may  not  mean  any  general  improvement  in  the  condition 
of  the  community,  at  least  for  a  considerable  period.  If 

•  40  Roberts,  Anthracite  Coal  Communities,  p.  299. 

41 K.  H.  Claghorn,  in  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Political  and  Social  Science,  vol.  24,  pp.  204,  205  (July,  1904). 

42  P.  30.  Conference  of  Ward  VIII,  containing  a  large  foreign 
population. 


1 66          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

charitable  institutions  were  more  ready  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  law  as  to  the  deportation  of  public  charges, 
the  community  would  be  relieved  of  much  of  its  present 
burden.  What  this  burden  is  we  shall  now  proceed  to 
consider. 

E.    THE  BURDEN  OF  DEPENDENTS  AND  DELINQUENTS 

The  actual  burden  of  the  foreign  dependent  and  de- 
linquent classes  upon  the  community  is  almost  as 
difficult  to  estimate  as  the  money  value  of  the  immi- 
grant ;  and  the  sum  expended  in  the  care  of  these  classes 
bears  about  the  same  relation  to  the  whole  burden  which 
they  impose  upon  the  community,  that  the  money  the 
immigrant  brings  with  him  does  to  his  money  value.  In 
addition  to  the  cost  of  supporting  persons  actually  in 
institutions,  there  is  a  far  larger  cost  for  increased  police 
and  sanitary  inspectors,  for  law  courts  and  machinery 
of  justice,  for  private  charity,  for  public  education,  and 
for  the  effects  of  physical  and  moral  contagion  upon 
the  rest  of  the  population. 

Roughly  speaking  the  foreigners  furnish  one  and  one- 
half  times  as  many  criminals,  two  and  one-third  times 
as  many  insane,  and  three  times  as  many  paupers  as  the 
native  element;  and  in  1890  these  foreign  dependents 
and  delinquents  numbered  over  80,000  persons.  When 
the  forthcoming  census  of  alien  defectives  and  delin- 
quents is  published  we  shall  know  more  exactly  the  money 
burden  put  upon  us.  The  Immigration  Bureau  in  1904 
made  a  census  of  the  aliens  in  public  institutions,  and  it 
appeared  that  in  the  penal,  reformatory,  and  charitable 
institutions  of  eleven  States  from  Maine  to  Maryland, 
including  Delaware,  there  were  28,135  aliens.  Of  these, 
16,438  or  58.8  per  cent,  were  Irish,  German,  and  Eng- 
lish by  birth,  and  7995  or  28.8  per  cent,  were  Slavic  and 


Social  Effects  167 

Italian.43  The  numbers  of  aliens  of  these  races  in  the 
same  States  are  not  at  hand  for  comparison,  but  if  we 
consider  the  foreign-born,  it  appears  that  the  Irish,  Ger- 
mans and  English  were  about  51  per  cent  of  all  the 
foreign-born,  and  the  Italians  and  Slavs  about  13  per 
cent.44  As  the  Irish,  Germans  and  English  tend  to  be- 
come naturalized  more  than  the  Italians  and  Slavs,  the 
comparison  may  be  rather  unfair  to  the  latter;  but  one 
cannot  help  noticing  the  great  disproportion  between 
their  rates  in  the  total  foreign-born  population  and  in 
the  total  alien  dependents  and  delinquents.45  The  ex- 
pense which  these  aliens  were  to  the  country  can  be 
estimated  from  the  per  capita  expenditure  in  institutions 
in  one  or  two  of  our  Eastern  States,  bearing  in  mind  that 
in  some  other  sections  of  the  country  the  plant  is  not  so 
large  and  that  in  the  East  the  administration  is  more 
economical.46 

If  we  take  $150  as  an  average  yearly  cost,  which 
Horace  Mann  considered  too  low,  there  is  a  bill  of 
$12,000,000  which  this  country  has  to  pay  for  persons 

43  F.  P.  Sargent,  in  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Polit- 
ical and  Social  Science,  vol.  24,  p.  157  (July,  1904). 

44  Twelfth  Census,  1900,  vol.  i,  p.  clxxiii. 

45  Of  the  inmates  of  the  penal  and  charitable  institutions  of 
New  York  city,  36.9  per  cent,  are  native-born,  and  63.1  per  cent, 
are  foreign-born.     Of  the  foreign-born,  36.3  per  cent,  are  natives 
of  Ireland;  n.o  per  cent,  natives  of  Germany;  and  4.2  per  cent, 
natives  of  England.     See  Byron  C.  Mathews,  in  Forum,  vol.  26, 

P-  "25.  Average  fast 

per  capita 
STATE  Year  Claws  in  dollars 

*6Mass 1893  Prisoner  164 

Mass 1893  Pauper  155 

Mass 1893  Insane  186 

Mass 1896  Insane  132 

Mass 1895  Prisoner  in  State  prison  207 

Mass 1895  Prisoner  in  Women's  Reformatory      192 

N.  Y 1890  Penitentiary  no 

N.  Y 1890  Insane  222 

N.   Y 1900  Insane  163 


i68         The   Effects   of   Immigration 

many  of  whom  could  have  been,  and  should  have  been, 
excluded.  In  1902,  the  direct  cost  to  the  United  States 
of  the  excess  of  the  foreign-born  insane  alone  amounted 
to  at  least  $5,020,000  per  year.  It  is  probable  that  the 
figure  given  above  as  the  total  cost  of  alien  defectives 
and  delinquents  is  ridiculously  inadequate. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  the  total  annual  cost  of 
caring  for  the  foreign-born  poor  of  New  York  Sfate 
alone  equals  $12,000,000,  and  this  leaves  out  of  account 
the  charitable  homes  for  children.  The  average  expendi- 
ture for  correctional,  charitable  and  reformatory  institu- 
tions, for  the  period  1885  to  1895,  in  New  York  State  was 
about  $i5,ooo,ooo.46  If  we  assume  the  foreign-born  to 
be  responsible  for  only  one-third  of  this  expenditure  the 
result  is  a  charge  of  $5,000.000  on  this  account,  again 
probably  too  low.  In  1902  there  were  12,000  foreign- 
born  insane,  idiots,  and  epileptics  in  the  public  institu- 
tions of  the  State  of  New  York,  or  about  6,000  over 
the  normal  proportion  for  the  foreign-born.47  The 
average  life  of  a  person  committed  to  an  insane  hospital 
is  about  twelve  years,  and  the  cost  about  $165  a  year 
for  each  patient ;  so  that  the  total  expense  of  the  6000 
foreign-born  patients  mentioned,  for  the  rest  of  their 
lives  would  be  nearly  twelve  millions  of  dollars. 

Further  investigation  and  the  lapse  of  time  will  show 
which  nationalities  furnish  us  the  largest  proportion  of 
the  unfit;  but,  taking  the  28,000  alien  convicts  and 
paupers  above  enumerated,  at  the  average  cost  of  $150 
per  year,  we  see  that  in  the  North  Atlantic  Division  with 
Maryland  and  Delaware  alone  these  persons  cost  over 

48  Report  of  State  Board  of  Charities,  1894,  P-  xiv. 

47  See  testimony  of  Goodwin  Brown,  attorney  for  the  New 
York  State  Lunacy  Commission,  Senate  Documents,  57th  Cong, 
2d  Sess.,  No.  62,  p.  238. 


Social  Effects  169 

$4,000,000  annually.  The  burden  of  private  charity  is 
even  harder  to  ascertain  than  that  borne  by  public 
charity,  and  is  doubtless  quite  as  great.  In  the  face  of 
figures  like  these  it  is  not  strange  that  Henry  Gannett, 
a  competent  statistician,  writes :  "  The  evidence  on 
record  is  that  this  country  supports  the  greatest 
eleemosynary  work  known  to  history." 

F.     CONGESTION    IN    CITIES48 

One  of  the  marked  features  in  modern  life  is  the  rush 
toward  the  cities,  which  is  characteristic  of  all  the  civil- 
ized world.  In  addition  to  sharing  in  this  general 
tendency,  the  United  States  is  in  the  unique  position  of 
having  the  population  of  many  of  its  future  cities  pre- 
sented to  it  as  a  free  gift,  moved  with  magic  ease  from 
the  old  world  to  the  new. 

In  1790,  cities  of  8000  inhabitants  contained  3.35  per 
cent,  of  the  urban  population;  in  1900,  32.9  per  cent. 
In  1870,  only  14  cities  had  a  population  of  100,000;  in 
1900,  there  were  38.  In  1880  there  was  only  one  city 
with  1,000,000  population;  to-day  there  are  three.  This 
growth  is  due  more  to  the  influx  of  persons  from  outside 
than  to  the  increase  of  original  population,  and  of  the 
influx  a  large  proportion  consists  of  immigrants. 

Thus,  in  1900,  the  foreign-born  constituted  a  little 
over  one-eighth  of  the  total  population  of  the  United 
States ;  and  though  they  also  constituted  only  one-tenth 
of  the  rural  population,  they  formed  one-fourth  of  the 
total  population  of  the  cities.  These  figures  have  a  more 

48  Seventh  Special  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Labor,  (1894)  ;  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol. 
15,  pp.  449-492,  "  The  Foreign  Immigrant  in  New  York  City " ; 
Bulletin  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  No.  13,  (Nov.  1897),  "The 
Italians  in  Chicago."  Cp.  supra,  chapter  v.,  c. 


170  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

definite  meaning  when  applied  specifically.  As  is  shown 
in  the  following  table,  with  the  exception  of  certain  mill 
towns,  the  cities  with  the  largest  proportion  of  residents 
of  foreign  birth  and  parentage  were  these : 

Percentage  of  Percentage  of 

Foreign  Born  Foreign  Parentage 

Boston,    Mass 35.1  72.2 

Fall  River,  Mass 47-7  86.1 

Providence,  R.  1 31.8  66.5 

Buffalo,  N.  Y 29.6  73.8 

New  York,  N.  Y 37.0  76.9 

Philadelphia,  Pa 22.8  54.9 

Cleveland,    0 32.6  75.6 

Chicago,    111 34.6  77.4 

Detroit,    Mich 33.8  77.5 

Duluth,    Minn 39.6  79.8 

San  Francisco,  Cal 34.1  75.2 

It  would  be  natural  that,  after  some  residence  in  this 
country,  immigrants  should  share  in  the  general  tend- 
ency toward  urban  life.  But  we  find  two  factors  which 
produce  that  result  to-day,  immediately  upon  immi- 
grants' landing.  The  first,  already  referred  to,  is  the 
change  in  recent  years  in  the  kind  of  the  majority  of 
immigrants.  Coming  from  a  lower  social  and  economic 
class  than  formerly,  with  but  little  money,  and  hence 
with  no  power  to  go  to  the  newer  parts  of  the  country, 
they  are  attracted  to  the  settlements  of  those  similarly 
situated  who  have  come  before.  Community  of  lan- 
guage, kinship  or  friendship  combine  with  poverty  to 
produce  constant  accretion  in  any  settlement  once 
started;  so  that  even  those  accustomed  at  home  to 
country  life  and  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  instead  of 
following  similar  occupations  here,  become  occupants  of 
the  sweat  shop  and  the  factory. 

The  second  factor,  which  is  responsible  for  so  many 
other  far-reaching  consequences,  is  the  change  of  race 
among  immigrants.  The  races  which  came  to  us  earlier 


Social  Effects  171 

continued  in  the  main  the  same  habits  of  rural  and 
agricultural  life  to  which  they  were  accustomed  in 
Europe.  But  the  newer  races,  as  has  been  said,  reverse 
their  habits  in  this  respect  and  tend  to  the  cities.  This 
is  brought  out  by  the  following  table  from  the  census  of 
1900,  giving  the  proportion  of  those  born  in  certain 
specified  countries  who  were  found  in  the  160  principal 
cities  of  the  United  States:49 

Per  cent.  Per  cent. 

Norway 22.4      England 46.3 

Denmark 28.  i       Germany 50.2 

Wales 32.3      Ireland 62.0 

Switzerland 35.3       Italy 62.4 

Sweden 36.3      Poland 62.6 

Holland 44.1       Russia 74.9 

Scotland 46.0 

It  is  possible  in  some  instances  to  follow  this  subject 
even  further,  and  to  show  that  recent  immigration  settles 
not  only  in  our  large  cities  but  in  the  slum  districts  of 
those  cities,  and  to  compare  the  relative  contributions  of 
population  made  to  those  districts  by  the  earlier  and 
more  literate,  and  the  later  and  more  illiterate.  The 
Seventh  Special  Report  of  the  United  States  Commis- 
sioner of  Labor  contains  a  study  of  the  slum  districts 
of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore  and  Chicago. 
The  report,  which  is  exceedingly  valuable  and  interest- 
ing, shows50  that  the  proportion  of  those  of  foreign 
birth  or  parentage  to  the  total  population  of  the  slums 
in  Baltimore  was  77  per  cent.;  in  Chicago,  90  per 
cent. ;  in  New  York,  95  per  cent. ;  and  in  Philadelphia, 
91  per  cent.  The  figures  for  the  foreign -born  alone  are 
correspondingly  striking.  Of  every  100  aliens,  40  were 
illiterate  in  the  slums  of  Baltimore,  47  in  Chicago,  59 

49  Census  of  1900,  vol.  I,  p.  clxxxvi. 

60  Seventh  Special  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor, 
pp.  41,  44,  72,  160-163  (1894). 


172  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

in  New  York,  and  51  in  Philadelphia;  and  of  every  100 
of  these  illiterate  aliens,  there  were  67  males  of  voting 
age  in  Baltimore,  77  in  Chicago,  78  in  New  York,  and 
85  in  Philadelphia.  From  the  same  report  it  appears 
that  southeastern  Europe  furnishes  three  times  as  many 
inhabitants  as  northwestern  Europe  to  the  slums  of 
Baltimore,  19  times  as  many  to  the  slums  of  New  York, 
20  times  as  many  to  the  slums  of  Chicago,  and  71  times 
as  many  to  the  slums  of  Philadelphia ;  also  that  the 
illiteracy  of  northwestern  Europeans  in  the  slums  was 
25.5  per  cent. ;  of  southeastern  Europeans  54.5  per 
cent. ;  and  of  native  Americans,  7.4  per  cent. 

G.      ASSIMILATION  51 

It  has  been  asserted  52  that  in  the  early  days  of  this 
country  the  majority  of  the  great  men  were  produced  in 
the  two  States  of  Massachusetts  and  Virginia,  which, 
more  than  any  others,  were  homogeneous  in  race,  re- 
ligion, and  civic  and  social  ideals.  It  is  said  that  taking 
history  as  a  whole,  the  nations  which  have  left  the 
greatest  mark  in  religion,  in  art  and  in  literature,  such 
as  Judaea,  Greece,  Rome,  France,  Germany  and  Eng- 
land, were  at  the  time  of  their  greatness  essentially 
homogeneous ;  and  that  decadence  has  in  general  fol- 
lowed the  dispersal  or  mixture  of  races.  There  is 
undoubtedly  much  to  be  said  in  support  of  this  view.  So 
far  as .  mere  commercial  and  material  progress  is  con- 
cerned a  heterogeneous  people  may  be  as  successful  as 

51  See  J.  T.  Buchanan,     in  Forum,  vol.  32,  pp.  686-694  (Feb. 
1902) ;     Americans     in     Process — Robert     A.     Woods,     editor, 
(1902)  ;     Hull    House   Maps   and   Papers;   Special   Report    of 
United    States    Commissioner    of      Labor,    "  The    Italians    in 
Chicago." 

52  Sydney  G.  Fisher,  in  Forum,  vol.  14,  p.  119  (Jan.  1893). 


Social  Effects  173 

any.  But  where  depth  and  not  breadth  is  concerned, 
that  freedom  from  distraction  and  multiplicity  which 
results  from  the  prevalence  of  a  distinct  type  and  the 
universality  of  certain  standards  and  ideals,  seems  almost 
essential  to  the  development  of  extraordinary  products 
in  any  line. 

If,  as  we  have  seen,  a  certain  type  was  developed  in 
this  country,  under  relatively  homogeneous  conditions, 
is  there  not  danger  that  in  becoming  a  cosmopolitan 
people  we  shall  not  merely  change  but  shall  cease  to 
have  any  distinctive  type  at  all  ?  53  It  should  be  remem- 
bered that  the  earlier  immigration  which  settled  New 
England,  for  example,  was  of  a  carefully  selected 
class54  and,  until  recently,  the  natural  conditions  of 
immigration  have  worked  to  produce  the  same  selection. 
The  social  and  institutional  character  of  our  country 
was  developed  not  only  from  selected  material,  but  arose 
from  the  strongest  kind  of  forces  operating  upon  the 
colonists  after  their  arrival.  "  The  first  of  these  was  the 
effect  of  settlement  in  an  entirely  new  country,  so  far 
from  the  mother  country  as  to  be  practically  free  from 
her  influence,  and  so  exposed  to  danger  that  it  demanded 
extraordinary  courage  and  self-reliance.  Here  was  an 
influence  of  environment  demanding  the  development 
of  certain  qualities  at  all  cost,  even  on  penalty  of  anni- 
hilation. With  the  extension  of  colonization  westward, 
the  same  qualities  were  demanded,  and  have  in  recent 
times  been  made  manifest  in  the  mining  camps,  and  on 

63  Eliot  Norton,  in  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Politi- 
cal and  Social  Science,  vol.   24,   p.    163    (July,    1904)  ;    Robert 
Hunter,  in  The  Commons,  vol.  9,  p.  114  (April,  1904). 

64  When  the  voyage  of  the  Mayflower  was  projected  it  was 
arranged  that  the  "  youngest  and   strongest  part "  of  the  con- 
gregation should  go.    Geo.   F.   Parker,   in  Forum,  vol.   14,  pp. 
605-6  (Jan.  1893). 


174          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

the  cattle  ranges  of  the  far  west  just  as  they  were  in 
the  earliest  settlements.  The  second  influence,  and  one 
which  has  been  permanent  and  powerful,  is  that  of  es- 
tablished institutions.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  major- 
ity of  the  early  settlers  were  English,  and  that  the  im- 
migration at  first  was  extremely  moderate,  time  was 
given  to  fix  the  institutions  on  the  English  model. 
Later,  immigration  from  many  different  nations  has 
been  received  into  the  mould  thus  prepared,  and,  not 
having  the  cohesion  necessary  for  separate  existence, 
has  taken  on  this  form.55  The  intermixture  of  races 
caused  by  the  immigration  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
unlike  that  of  former  times,  has  not  been  due  to  a  war 
of  nationalities,  it  has  been  the  absorption  by  a  nation- 
ality of  individuals  from  other  nations.  It  has  been 
an  unequal  contest  of  the  individual  immigrants  against 
powerfully  established  national  customs  and  firmly 
rooted  institutions.  This  influence  became  especially 
powerful  with  the  establishment  of  our  national  gov- 
ernment, and  has  remained  powerful  ever  since."  56 

Now,  though  it  is  true  in  a  sense,  that  material  prog- 
ress is  the  foundation  of  culture  and  character,  it  is 
also  true  that  material  progress  is  but  the  soil  in  which 
national  character  grows.  No  matter  how  good  the 
soil,  if  the  stock  is  poor  or  atmosphere  vitiated,  the 
organic  institutions  arising  from  it  will  be  dwarfed  and 
imperfect.  The  social  and  industrial  system  having 
been  once  cast  in  a  certain  mould,  any  very  diverse 
elements  introduced  into  it  in  sufficient  numbers  may  re- 
tard or  destroy  its  satisfactory  working.  All  these  truths 

65  A  German  cast  the  deciding  vote  making  English  the  official 
language  of  Pennsylvania. 

56  R.  Mayo-Smith,  "  Assimilation  of  Races  in  the  United 
States,"  in  Publications  of  the  American  Statistical  Association, 
new  series,  vol.  3,  p.  431  (Dec.  1893). 


Social  Effects  175 

are  self-evident,  but  the  optimism  of  our  people,  relying 
upon  the  comparatively  easy  assimilation  of  some  millions 
of  aliens  during  the  nineteenth  century,  fails  adequately 
to  appreciate  the  problems  of  assimilation  in  the  twentieth 
century.57 

A  word  may  be  said  as  to  the  argument  that  the 
recent  immigration  bears  no  larger  proportion  to  the 
total  population  than  did  the  immigration  before,  say 
1880,  and  hence  cannot  have  any  more  disturbing  effect 
upon  our  institutions.  This  argument  overlooks  the 
fact  that  the  population  into  which  the  earlier  immi- 
gration flowed  was  relatively  homogeneous,  and  that 
the  earlier  immigration  mixed  much  more  with  those 
already  here  than  does  the  later.  Much  of  our  recent 
immigration  settles  in  the  midst  of  immigration  imme- 
diately preceding  it,  and  is  almost  as  far  removed  from 
direct  contact  with  native  Americans  as  if  it  were  still 
in  Europe.  Moreover,  even  immigrants  who  have  been 

67  The  bulk  of  the  immigration  now  coming  to  us  is  of  the 
peasant  class.  "  But  our  fathers  did  not,  and  we  do  not  as  yet, 
declaredly  propose  to  found  a  state  on  such  a  purely  laboring 
class.  The  only  social  order  consistent  with  our  commonwealth 
is  one  in  which  all  men  are  not  only  equal  before  the  law,  but 
have  an  essential  unity  in  their  motives  and  aspirations.  Just  so 
far  as  we  admit  these  peasant  people  to  a  place  with  us,  we  in- 
flict on  our  life  the  impoverishment  of  citizenly  talent  which 
their  own  unfortunate  history  has  laid  upon  them.  ...  I 
would  ask  the  hopeful  man  to  consider  how  long  it  would  require 
to  change  himself  or  his  descendants  into  the  characteristic 
mould  of  body  and  mind  of  the  peasant.  Backward  steps  in  the 
generations  are  always  more  easily  taken  than  are  those  of  ad- 
vance, but  all  who  have  considered  such  changes  will,  I  think 
agree  with  me  that  it  would  take  some  centuries  of  sore  trial  to 
bring  the  characteristic  American  to  the  lower  estate,  and  the 
chance  is  that  the  breed  would  perish  on  the  way."  N.  S. 
Shaler,  "European  Peasants  as  Immigrants,"  in  Atlantic,  voL 
21,  p.  654  (May,  1893). 


176  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

here  for  some  time  and  have  adopted  American  ideals, 
cannot  exercise  as  powerful  an  assimilative  influence  as 
an  equal  number  of  the  native  born. 

A  democracy,  to  be  a  success — and  we  are  trying  it 
here  on  a  hitherto  unprecedented  scale — depends  on 
the  intelligence  of  the  average  citizen.  Wherever  civic 
intelligence  and  initiative  are  low,  democracy  becomes 
impossible,  and  an  oligarchy  or  an  empire  takes  its 
place.  The  United  States  has  had  to  suffer  and  is  still 
suffering  untold  miseries  from  the  reckless  introduction 
for  purposes  of  material  gain  of  an  alien  people,  to  wit, 
the  African  negro.  The  same  arguments  were  used 
for  the  admission  of  negro  slaves  that  are  now  used  for 
the  admission  of  the  cheapest  European  and  Asiatic 
labor.  Wherever  a  superior  and  an  inferior  race  are 
brought  together,  one  must  rule ;  and  one  will  withdraw 
itself  socially  and  politically  from  the  other.  When 
this  happens  universal  democracy  ceases  to  exist,  and 
no  amount  of  preaching  the  rights  of  men  or  any  other 
theoretical  considerations  will  modify  the  result.  As 
Professor  Shaler  has  said 58  this  result  has  already 
happened  in  the  South;  and  in  the  North,  society  is  be- 
ginning to  experience  a  social  stratification  which  is 
breaking  up  its  former  homogeneity,  and,  as  we  saw 
above,59  is  affecting  profoundly  the  matter  of  race 
survival. 

The  question  therefore  arises,  to  what  degree  are  the 
streams  of  population  now  coming  to  us  essentially  alien 
to  our  character  and  institutions.  It  has  been  already 
pointed  out 60  that  the  immigration  of  the  first  eight 
decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  essentially  akin 

68  Atlantic,  vol.  21,  p.  657  (May,  1893). 

69  Chapter  vi. 
60  Chapter  i.,  A. 


Social  Effects  177 

to  the  colonial  population  which  preceded  it,  and  was 
either  English-speaking  or  sufficiently  intelligent  and 
progressive  to  acquire  the  language  and  habits  of  the 
new  country  within  a  comparatively  short  period. 
There  were  here  and  there  exceptions,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Germans;  but,  upon  the  whole,  this 
statement  is  accurate.  In  other  words,  while  the  various 
immigrants  differed  to  some  extent  in  language,  train- 
ing and  habits,  their  intelligence,  their  education,  their 
initiative,  and  their  ideals  and  purposes  were  of  the  same 
general  type. 

The  most  important  factor  in  assimilation  is,  there- 
fore, likeness  of  world  standpoint.  The  next  is  probably 
knowledge  of  language.  We  have  seen  that  the  races 
which  form  the  bulk  of  immigration  to-day  are  ten  times 
as  illiterate  as  those  which  formed  the  bulk  of  our  immi- 
gration a  generation  ago.  In  this  respect  they  are  much 
more  than  ten  times  as  hard  to  assimilate,  for  the 
cohesive  and  centripetal  force  of  common  language  in- 
creases in  geometrical  rather  than  arithmetical  propor- 
tion to  the  units  of  those  speaking  it.  It  is  of  no 
consequence  to  say,  as  is  often  said,  that  immigrants  of 
to-day  are  no  more  illiterate  than  those  of  1870,  who  in 
general  made  good  citizens.  Times  have  changed,  and 
to  be  illiterate  to-day  marks  a  man  as  shiftless  or  un- 
fortunate in  a  way  that  was  not  true  thirty  or  forty  years 
ago.  Whichever  it  is  the  immigrant's  chance  to  be,  it 
renders  him  more  difficult  to  assimilate.  We  have  to-day 
little  Italys,  little  Russias,  little  Syrias,  and  so  on,  in  our 
midst,  vortex-rings  of  nationality,  closed  to  the  outside 
medium  in  which  they  live,  though  possibly  shifting  en 
masse  from  one  place  to  another  as  the  currents  of 
economic  demand  bear  them.  Such  results  were  not 
known  with  the  earlier  British,  German  and  Scandi- 


178  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

navian  populations.  Their  superior  energy  and  intelli- 
gence caused  them  to  take  part  in  everything  that  was 
going  on,  and  where  they  retained  their  native  language, 
it  was  either  in  addition  to  English,  or  the  local  papers 
published  in  their  native  language  were  read  by  all,  and 
bridged  the  gulf  between. 

Ignorance  of  language,  however,  does  away  with  even 
such  influence  of  the  outside  world  as  might  be  exerted 
by  the  reading  of  local  papers  in  the  native  language  of 
the  immigrant.  It  means  ignorance  of  trade  conditions, 
of  political  life,  and  of  civic  matters  generally.  It 
causes  immigrants  to  be  the  prey  of  the  padrone,  the 
banker,  the  local  political  boss.  Colonies  of  such  immi- 
grants are  like  hard-caked  patches  of  clayey  soil,  unfer- 
tilized by  the  stream  of  public  life  flowing  around,  and 
unable  to  absorb  the  needed  moisture  even  from  con- 
tiguous earth.  The  keynotes  of  modern  education  are 
attention  and  suggestion.  To  a  man  who  is  ignorant  of 
language,  one-half  at  least  of  the  power  of  suggestion 
from  outside  sources  is  cut  off,  and  with  this  the  force 
of  attention  is  cut  off  likewise.  In  some  cases,  no  doubt, 
individual  initiative  supplies  the  impetus  to  break 
through  this  wall,  even  for  the  adult.  But,  it  must  be 
remembered,  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  immigrants 
who  come  to  us  are  above  school  age,  and,  except  what 
comes  from  observation  in  the  much-restricted  area  of 
their  daily  life,  are  not  likely  to  receive  any  education 
after  landing. 

It  is  for  these  reasons  that  the  hope  of  assimilation  is 
always  fixed  upon  the  public  schools,61  and  it  is  said 
"  no  matter  about  the  parents,  they  will  soon  be  dead, 
the  children  will  become  good  Americans."  The  writer 

61  See  A.  M.  Shaw  on  the  public  schools  of  New  York  City, 
in  World's  Work,  pp.  4204-4229  (Dec.  190.3). 


Social  Effects  179 

would  not  underestimate  the  power  of  compulsory  edu- 
cation in  this  direction,  but  he  would  like  to  point  out 
certain  limitations  not  always  observed  in  this  connec- 
tion. In  the  early  days  of  the  country  nearly  all  the 
inhabitants  contributed  to  the  support  of  the  schools,  and 
took  an  interest  in  them.  To-day  there  are  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  immigrant  children  and  native-born  chil- 
dren of  immigrants  whose  education  is  being  paid  for  by 
others  than  their  parents.  Here  is  a  direct  and  increas- 
ing burden  of  assimilation  put  upon  the  community.  The 
immigrant  is  getting  something  for  nothing,  and,  while 
this  is  good  for  the  child,  it  is  demoralizing  to  the  interest 
of  the  immigrant  as  a  citizen.  In  the  next  place,  though 
immigrant  children  are  mentally  quick  and  take  high 
rank  in  their  studies,  it  remains  to  be  shown  that  the 
average  is  not  held  back  by  the  unfamiliarity  with  Eng- 
lish, and  by  ignorance  of  many  things  in  the  home.  In 
spite  of  some  institutions  like  the  Educational  Alliance 
in  New  York,  which  aims  to  teach  the  children  enough 
English  to  enable  them  to  enter  the  public  schools,  it  is 
safe  to  assert  that  the  burden  on  a  teaching  force,  of 
educating  a  number  of  Southern  and  Eastern  Europeans 
or  Asiatics,  is  far  greater  than  of  educating  an  equal 
number  of  native  Americans,  and  that  the  average  result 
is  no  better. 

Further  than  this,  the  average  result  in  a  broad  sense 
cannot  be  as  good.  For,  leaving  out  of  account  the 
important  distinction  between  education  and  information, 
the  usefulness  of  a  particular  piece  of  information  de- 
pends to  a  great  extent  upon  the  general  information  in 
the  scholar's  mind,  with  which  it  can  be  correlated.  A 
boy,  reared  in  a  family  of  educated  citizens,  uncon- 
sciously and  by  hearsay  and  imitation  learns  far  more 
from  his  family  and  associates  than  he  ever  learns  at 


180          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

school,  and  he  is  in  a  condition  where  school  training  is 
of  more  value  to  him.  Courses  in  history  and  govern- 
ment, flag  exercises,  and  occasional  readings  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  in  the  schools  have  only  a 
superficial  influence.  It  is  even  said  by  competent  ob- 
servers, that  the  result  of  school  education  of  immigrant 
children  is  often  to  alienate  the  children  from  their 
parents.  The  children  cease  to  have  much  in  common 
with  their  parents,  in  some  cases  feel  socially  above 
them,  and  in  more  cases  contract  a  dislike  for  manual 
labor.  In  a  large  number  of  cases  the  parents  are  so 
occupied  in  trying  to  earn  a  living  wage  that  the  chil- 
dren are  entirely  neglected,  and  the  whole  aim  of  the 
parents  is  to  be  rid  of  them  as  far  as  possible.  How 
different  is  this  picture  from  that  of  the  colonist's  home 
of  fifty  or  one  hundred  years  ago.  Is  it  surprising  that 
the  children  of  immigrants  are  the  most  criminal  class 
in  the  community,  as  we  have  seen  them  to  be  ? 

Wherever  there  is  a  lack  of  assimilation,  social 
ptomaines  are  created,  and  do  their  deadly  work  as 
surely  in  the  civic  body  as  in  the  physical  body.  The 
explanation  is  obvious.  We  have  taken  in  immigrants 
faster  than  we  can  assimilate  them,  and  while  we  put 
forth  strenuous  efforts  to  digest  those  already  here,  still 
larger  numbers  are  put  before  us.  A  fire  can  be  extin- 
guished by  too  much  fuel  as  well  as  by  fuel  of  a  low 
grade,  and  when  both  features  are  combined  the  result  is 
but  smoke  and  bad  gases. 

Not  only  are  large  masses  of  our  recent  immigrants 
utterly  deficient  in  political  ideals,  or  trained  in  theories 
of  government  widely  diverse  from  and  inconsistent  with 
our  own,  but  their  ethical  and  religious  ideals  are  funda- 
mentally different.  The  wholesale  perjury  in  recent 
naturalization  frauds,  and  the  habitual  use  of  falsehood 


Social  Effects  181 

in  obtaining  admission  of  children  to  public  institu- 
tions, are  but  evidences  of  a  widespread  condition  of 
immorality. 

Difference  in  religious  belief  may  be  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  heterogeneity,  and  one  of  the  greatest  of 
hindrances  to  assimilation.  Members  of  the  same  re- 
ligious sect,  especially  if  surrounded  by  others  of  a 
different  faith,  tend  to  become  clannish  and  separatist, 
and  to  affiliate  only  with  newcomers  of  like  faith,  or, 
as  sometimes  is  the  case  in  New  York  City  and  else- 
where, with  those  of  like  faith  and  the  same  race.  Dif- 
ference in  religion  is  a  powerful  bar  to  intermarriage, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Jews. 

The  statistics  of  religious  belief,  as  collected  by  the 
answers  given  by  immigrants  to  questions  on  that  sub- 
ject, are  available  only  for  the  year  1899,  the  asking  of 
such  questions  having  been  begun  in  that  year  and  dis- 
continued in  1900.  It  appears  that  in  1899  tne  total 
immigration  was  divided  as  to  religious  belief  as  fol- 
lows:62 Roman  Catholics,  52.1  per  cent;  Protestants, 
18.5  per  cent. ;  Jews,  10.4  per  cent. ;  Greek  Catholics, 
4.0  per  cent. ;  Brahmins  and  Buddhists,  0.9  per  cent. ;  and 
miscellaneous,  13.9  per  cent.  The  Roman  Catholics 
came  mainly  from  Austria-Hungary,  Italy  and  Ireland ; 
the  Protestants  from  Germany,  Scandinavia  and  Great 
Britain;  the  Jews  from  Austria-Hungary  and  Russia. 

The  classes  of  immigrants  who  do  not  assimilate  are 
described  in  detail  in  various  parts  of  this  volume. 
Those  who  form  the  abnormal  contribution  of  our 
foreign-born  population  to  the  dependent  and  delinquent 
classes,  those  who  fail  to  adopt  the  American  standard 
of  living  for  themselves  and  their  children,  who  fail  to 
demand  a  fair  living  wage,  who  do  not  learn  English, 

62  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.   15,  pp.  290,  291. 


1 82  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

who  go  back  and  forth  as  "  birds  of  passage  "  and  form 
no  permanent  ties  in  this  country,  who  herd  together  in 
isolated  communities  taking  no  interest  in  their  neigh- 
bors or  in  public  matters — these  classes  are  the  instances 
of  non-assimilation,  and  their  elimination  is  necessary  to 
the  health  of  the  body  politic. 

In  addition  to  the  natural  difficulties  of  the  situation 
an  artificial  one  is  being  added.  Foreign  countries, 
realizing  that  it  is  futile  to  attempt  to  check  the  exodus 
of  workers,  have  begun  to  bend  all  their  energies  to 
maintain  the  allegiance  of  their  emigrants,  to  induce 
them  to  send  home  their  savings,  and  to  return  ulti- 
mately. Political,  social  and  even  religious  influences  are 
used  to  prevent  assimilation  as  far  as  possible.63  That 
such  solidarity  is  accomplished  in  many  cases  appears 
from  the  ease  with  which  certain  nationalities  can  be 
and  have  been  arrayed  against  immigration  restriction, 
or  any  action  tending  to  break  up  the  system  above 
described.84  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  a  New  York- 
judge  recently  refused  to  approve  the  incorporation  of  a 
club  formed  to  inspire  love  of  Hungary  ;  anil  our  consul 
at  Budapest  states  that  immigrants  are  to  be  taught  to 
retain  their  European  citizenship,  and  to  remit  their  sav- 
ings to  Kurope,  and  that  it  is  expected  to  keep  watch  over 
the  immigrants  in  this  country  by  means  of  clergymen, 
newspaper  men  and  others  in  order  to  secure  these  re- 
sults.65 Such  attempts  to  hinder  assimilation  are  not 
to  be  tolerated,  and  it  is  believed  that  they  do  not  have 
the  sympathy  of  the  most  intelligent  immigrants. 

**  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration, 
PP-  43,  45- 

e*Cp,  infra,  chap,  xiv.,  A. 

65  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30,  p.  7  (1904). 


CHAPTER  IX 
POLITICAL   EFFECTS   OF   IMMIGRATION 

A.     POLITICAL    TENDENCIES 

THE  early  colonists  of  this  country,  though  impatient 
of  foreign  control,  were  on  the  whole  reverent  of  law 
and  disposed  to  uphold  the  authorities  constituted  by  the 
people.  The  later  immigration  was  mostly  from  States 
and  races  long  familiar  with  representative  government. 
With  the  more  recent  immigration  the  case  is  quite 
otherwise.  The  more  ignorant  Italians,  the  Slavic  races, 
the  Syrians  and  other  Asiatics,  the  Russian  Hebrews, — 
all  have  come  from  lands  where  democracy  is  unknown, 
and  where  law  is  represented  to  the  people  by  soldiers, 
tax  collectors,  and  gendarmerie. 

We  may  say  at  once  that  the  political  effect  of  the 
Teutonic  immigration  of  the  last  century,  which  settled 
the  Middle  and  Northwestern  States,  has  been  beneficial. 
The  German,  Scandinavian,  and  British  immigrants  have 
proved  intelligent  and  conservative  in  public  matters. 
They  contributed,  for  example,  in  no  small  degree  to 
conservative  action  upon  the  money  question  in  1896. 
There  have  been  few  socialists  or  agitators  among  them, 
and  these  have  had  no  large  following.1  The  city  gov- 
ernment of  Milwaukee,  with  a  foreign  element  of  86 

i  As  a  rule  they  vote  the  Republican  ticket,  as  do  some  of  the 
Italians.  Of  the  168  members  of  the  Minnesota  legislature  in 
1894,  47  were  Scandinavian  Republicans.  The  bulk  of  the  Irish, 
many  of  the  Hebrews,  and  some  of  the  Slavs  vote  the  Democratic 
ticket. 

183 


184          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

per  cent.,  compares  favorably  with  that  of  any  of  our 
large  cities.  It  is  notorious  that  populist  and  socialistic 
doctrines  have  found  more  adherents  in  States  contain- 
ing the  largest  proportion  of  native  Americans  than  in 
those  with  a  large  foreign  vote.  Outside  of  New  York 
City  few  of  the  obnoxious  political  bosses  have  been  of 
foreign  birth  or  parentage.2  It  is  fair  to  point  out,  how- 
ever, that  this  may  not  continue  to  be  the  case,  and  that 
the  conspicuousness  of  the  native  bosses  may  be  due  in 
part  to  inherited  influence  and  better  knowledge  of  our 
political  machinery. 

In  view  of  the  relative  tinfitness  of  many  of  our 
recent  immigrants  for  political  life  in  a  democracy,  it 
is  perhaps  fortunate  that  hitherto  they  have  shown  but 
little  disposition  to  become  naturalized.  The  census  of 
1890  showed  the  percentage  of  foreign -born  who  were 
aliens  to  be  as  follows : 3 

Slay 21.4      British 9.3 

Latin 29.7      German 9.7 

Asiatic 85.7      Scandinavian 13.2 

Average 32.0         Average 9.9 

From  this  it  appears  that  those  races  most  akin  to 
the  original  settlers  show  a  greater  inclination  to  take 
part  in  our  political  life.4  The  Slavic  and  Iberic  races 
have  constituted  nearly  seven-tenths  of  the  total  immi- 
gration in  recent  years,  and  seven-tenths  of  the  male 
aliens  of  voting  age  have  been  in  the  country  long  enough 
to  be  naturalized.  If  we  consider  Massachusetts  only,5 

2  See  New  York  Evening  Post,  Dec.  15,  1894. 

3  Part  II,  pp.  600,  688,    Cf.  Twelfth  Census  (1900),  vol.  i,  p. 
clxxvii. 

4  As  to  naturalization  by  Scandinavians  and  Germans  in  Min- 
nesota, see  K.  C.  Babcock,  in  Forum,  vol.  13,  p.  106  (Sept.  1892). 

5  F.   A.   Bushee,   in  Publications   of  the  American  Economic 
Association,  vol.  4,  pp.  122  ff.  (May,  1903).   .   » • 


Political  Effects  185 

and  make  allowances  for  five  years'  residence  and  for 
illiteracy  as  to  English,  it  appears  that  three-fifths  of 
the  Swedes  and  Norwegians,  and  more  than  one-half 
the  Germans,  Russian  Jews,  and  Irish  are  voters;  but 
of  the  Portuguese  and  Italians  only  one-third  are  voters ; 
and  if  we  take  account  of  the  time  of  residence,  only 
about  one-half  of  the  Irish,  Germans,  and  Scandina- 
vians, 17  per  cent,  of  the  Portuguese,  and  13  per  cent, 
of  the  Italians.  These  figures  are  in  the  face  of  the 
fact  that  many  who  do  get  naturalized  do  so  from 
selfish  and  not  from  public  motives.  There  is  the 
Italian  or  Slovak  bird  of  passage  who  goes  back  and 
forth  between  this  country  and  his  own,  and  who  gets 
out  his  first  papers  in  order  to  facilitate  passing  inspec- 
tion on  his  next  trip,  or  to  get  municipal  jobs  which  are 
limited  to  actual  or  intending  citizens. 

The  enormous  political  power  which  can  be  exercised 
by  the  foreign-born  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  of  the  males 
of  voting  age  over  one-quarter  are  foreign-born,  and  that 
nearly  three-fifths  of  these  latter  have  been  naturalized. 
Indeed,  the  possible  foreign  vote  of  two  generations 
hence  is  larger  than  the  native  vote  of  native  parentage.6 
Although,  as  has  been  said,  the  result  of  most  immigra- 
tion has  thus  far  been  beneficial  politically,  in  consider- 
ing possible  future  effects  there  are  certain  dangers  that 
should  not  be  overlooked  in  a  country  committed  for 
better  or  for  worse  to  the  doctrine  of  government  by 
plurality  of  votes. 

One  of  these  dangers  lies  in  the  liberality  with  which 
the  ballot  is  given,  and  in  the  fact  that  in  some  States 
aliens  can  take  part  in  State  and  Federal  elections.  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that  citizenship  of  the  United  States  by 

6  See  R.  Mayo-Smith,  in  Publications  of  the  American  Statis- 
tical Association,  vol.  3,  pp.  441  ff.  (Dec.  1893). 


1 86  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

naturalization  has  not,  in  every  instance,  been  made  a 
prerequisite  to  the  right  to  vote  in  the  States ;  but  anti- 
federalist  jealousy  of  the  central  government  was  origi- 
nally responsible  for  a  different  arrangement,  and  the 
provisions  upon  this  subject  have  remained  very  lax 
down  to  the  present  time.  In  1901,  there  were  still 
twelve  States  which  allowed  aliens  to  vote,  viz.,  Ala- 
bama, Arizona,  Arkansas,  Colorado,  Indiana,  Kansas, 
Missouri,  Nebraska,  Oregon,  South  Dakota,  Texas,  and 
Wisconsin.  In  Michigan,  aliens  who  had  declared  their 
intention  to  become  citizens  prior  to  May  8,  1892,  had 
the  privilege.  The  period  of  residence  within  the  State 
required  has  also  varied  very  much.  In  1902,  in  States 
allowing  aliens  to  vote,  six  months'  residence  was  re- 
quired in  Arizona,  Colorado,  Indiana,  Kansas,  Michigan, 
Nebraska,  Oregon,  and  South  Dakota.  In  other  words, 
although  native-born  citizens  under  twenty-one  years  of 
age  were  not  allowed  to  vote  in  the  States  above  men- 
tioned, an  alien,  ignorant  of  the  language,  who  perhaps 
had  never  cast  a  ballot  in  his  native  land,  was  allowed  to 
vote  after  being  six  months  within  the  State.  Only 
three  States  required  an  educational  test:  Connecticut, 
Massachusetts,  and  Mississippi.  Recently,  constitutional 
amendments  have  been  adopted  in  some  of  the  Southern 
States  requiring  the  ability  to  read  or  to  "  understand  " 
the  State  constitution ;  but  these  were  designed  to  exclude 
ignorant  negroes  from  the  suffrage,  and  they  are  not 
material  in  our  present  consideration,  because,  as  we 
have  seen,  very  few  of  the  recent  immigrants  go  to  the 
Southern  States. 

Another  danger  lies  in  the  tendency  of  certain  races, 
congregated  in  particular  localities  to  vote  as  units,  thus 
giving  greater  effect  to  that  heterogeneity  of  foreign 
ideals  already  mentioned.  >In  certain  districts  we  have 


Political  Effects  187 

numerous  political  organizations  with  "hyphenated 
names."  Here  the  danger  is  not  so  much  from  the 
leaders  as  from  the  ignorance  of  the  mass  of  the  voters 
whom  they  influence — ignorance  of  things  in  general 
and  especially  of  the  moral  and  political  truths  under- 
lying our  government.  It  is  probable  that  Tammany 
Hall  could  never  have  reached  or  retained  its  great  in- 
fluence in  New  York  City  without  the  help  of  the  foreign 
vote;  and  the  defeat  of  Mayor  Low  for  re-election  in 
1903  was  undoubtedly  due  in  large  part  to  the  feeling  of 
the  Germans  on  the  excise  question,  and  of  the  Italian, 
Hebrew,  and  Greek  pedlers  on  the  enforcement  of  mu- 
nicipal ordinances  enacted  by  the  better  sentiment  of 
the  community.  The  heterogeneity  of  these  races  tends 
to  promote  bossism,  localism,  and  despotism,  and  to  make 
impossible  free  co-operation  for  the  public  welfare.  This 
condition  is,  of  course,  more  apparent  in  the  "  vortex- 
rings  "  of  population  living  without  much  intercourse 
with  outsiders.  In  Chicago  many  of  the  Poles  vote  as 
Poles,  not  as  Republicans  or  Democrats.  In  the  mining 
regions  of  Pennsylvania,  it  is  said,  when  a  miner  is 
asked  his  politics,  the  invariable  answer  is  "  Slovak," 
and  that  not  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  people  know  the 
name  of  the  President  of  the  United  States.7  Under 
these  circumstances,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  price  of 
votes  is  often  as  low  as  a  dollar  a  head.8  It  is  stated 
that  among  the  Jews  of  our  cities,  local  and  business 
considerations  determine  their  voting  to  a  large  extent, 
although  among  recent  immigrants  they  take  the  lead  in 
political  interest,  and  have  many  non-partisan  clubs  for 

7  Edward  A.  Steiner,  in  Outlook,  vol.  73,  pp.  560,  564  (Mar.  7, 

1903)- 

8  Henry  Rood,  in  Forum,  vol.   14,  p.   121    (Sept.    1892).     See 
generally,    Peter    Roberts,    The    Anthracite    Coal    Communities, 
chapter  xii. 


1 88  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

political  education.  Until  recently,  the  Italians  have 
shown  little  interest  in  public  matters.  The  chief  rank 
in  political  activity  must  unquestionably  be  assigned  to 
the  Irish,  and,  in  a  less  degree,  to  the  Germans.  The 
Irish  have  a  natural  liking  for  politics,  and  are  easily 
organized.  They  enjoy  a  contest  of  any  kind,  and  occupy 
a  large  proportion  of  positions  on  the  pay  rolls  of 
Eastern  cities. 

Perhaps  the  chief  political  danger  of  the  future  lies 
not  so  much  in  the  ease  with  which  the  ballot  can  be 
obtained,  or  in  the  tendency,  to  vote  along  racial  lines, 
as  in  the  change  of  political  ideals  following  the  change 
in  the  racial  composition  of  immigration.  This  differ- 
ence in  ideals  between  the  earlier  and  the  later  immigra- 
tion has  been  characterized  by  a  French  author 9  as 
follows : 

"  The  ethnic  character  has  a  profound  influence  on  the 
choice  between  the  two  modes  of  government.  With 
some  peoples  individual  autonomy — independence  of 
character — is  strongly  traced,  for  example,  among  the 
Germanic  nations.  Each  one  engages  only  his  extreme 
exterior  in  society.  With  nations  of  such  temperament, 
family  life  is  strongly  developed ;  the  home  is  the  sacred 
ark.  .  .  .  With  some  other  peoples — with  the  Latin 
nations  in  general — it  is  quite  different ;  the  autonomy  is 
less  refractory;  they  like  to  live  in  society,  and  prefer 
to  discharge  the  functions  of  thinking  and  wishing  upon 
others — the  will  not  being  carefully  cultivated,  it  dimin- 
ishes, and  the  State  acts  for  the  individual." 

We  can  trace  already  some  effects  of  the  racial  change 
in  immigration,  in  the  different  government  of  our  cities. 
It  is  impossible  to  govern  a  large  city  composed  of 
diverse  elements  in  the  same  way  as  a  small  city  with  a 

9  R.  de  la  Grasserie,  in  Revue  Internationale  de  Sociologic, 
vol.  4,  p.  888,  quoted  by  A.  H.  Hyde,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly, 
vol.  52,  p.  388  (Jan.  1888). 


Political  Effects  189 

homogeneous  population.  So  we  are  tending  to  take 
more  and  more  power  from  legislative  councils,  and  to 
concentrate  it  in  executive  officers,  such  as  mayors,  heads 
of  departments  and  commissions,  in  order  to  secure  effi- 
cient control  of  the  heterogeneous  elements  of  our 
population.  In  the  words  of  Professor  Commons,10  "  we 
have  actually  begun  to  despotize  our  institutions  in 
order  to  control  these  dissident  elements,  though  still 
optimistically  holding  that  we  retain  the  original  de- 
mocracy." Whether  such  a  change  makes  for  good  or 
for  evil,  time  will  show ;  but  it  is  at  any  rate  a  profound 
alteration  of  our  political  system,  and  results  largely 
from  immigration. 

B.       NATURALIZATION.11 

In  view  of  the  number  of  aliens  coming  to  our  shores, 
and  the  great  political  power  which  foreign-born  voters 
can  exercise,  it  is  important  to  consider  what  the  require- 
ments have  been  as  to  naturalization,  and  how  far  they 
have  safe-guarded  the  ballot. 

The  singular  indifference  of  the  public  to  the  matter 
of  naturalization,  as  to  all  subjects  affected  by  immigra- 
tion, is  shown  by  the  fact  that  our  present  naturalization 
laws  are  substantially  the  same  as  those  established  by 
the  Act  of  Congress  of  April  14,  1802. 12  It  is  provided 
that  the  alien  shall  declare  on  oath  before  a  State  or 
Federal  Court,  two  years  before  his  admission,  his  inten- 

10  John  R.   Commons,  in  Chautauquan,  vol.  38,  p.  34,   (Sept. 

1903)- 

11  For  the  history  of  this  subject  see  H.   Sydney  Everett,  in 
Atlantic,  vol.   75,  pp.   345-350    (March,    1895).     For   an   account 
of    recent    naturalization    frauds    see    Senate    Documents,    58th 
Cong.,  3d  Sess.,  No.  63  (1904)  ;  Message  of  President  Roosevelt, 
December,  1903 ;  Report  of  Commission  on  Naturalization,  House 
Documents,  59th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  No.  46  (1905). 

*2U.  S.  Rev.  St.,  §§  2165-2174;  Act  of  Mar.  3,  1903,  §  39. 


190          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

tion  to  become  a  citizen,  unless  he  was  a  minor  residing 
in  the  United  States  for  three  years  before  his  majority. 
When  he  seeks  finally  to  be  admitted,  he  must  take  an 
oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  it  must  appear  that  he  has  resided  in  the  United 
States  five  years  at  least,  and  one  year  within  the  State 
or  territory,  and  that  he  is  of  good  moral  character. 
These  facts  generally  must  be  proved  by  the  testimony 
of  two  or  more  witnesses.  Upon  naturalization,  the 
alien's  wife  becomes  a  citizen,  even  though  she  does  not 
come  to  the  United  States  until  after  his  death.  His 
children  residing  here  also  become  citizens,  but  not  if 
they  come  here  after  his  naturalization.  It  has  also  been 
held  that  where  an  alien  has  declared  his  intention  of 
becoming  a  citizen,  his  minor  child,  who  attains  his 
majority  before  his  father  completes  his  naturalization, 
may  in  some  cases  become  a  citizen  without  going 
through  the  process  of  naturalization.13  The  immigra- 
tion act  of  1903  14  provides  that  anarchists  shall  not  be 
naturalized. 

From  the  foregoing,  it  will  be  seen  that  practically 
any  court,  State  or  Federal,  can  naturalize  aliens,  and 
that  a  slight  amount  of  testimony  on  the  part  of  the 
alien  and  his  friends  is  all  that  is  required  to  support 
his  petition.  From  the  first  of  these  circumstances,  it 
results  that  the  thoroughness  of  the  process  varies  very 
much  with  the  court  administering  the  law,  all  degrees 
of  laxity  being  found  in  different  localities.  Even  in  the 
Federal  Courts,  the  practice  is  not  uniform,  and  in  sev- 
eral of  our  large  cities  where  certain  judges  have  applied 
the  law  with  greater  rigor,  the  business  of  naturalization 
has  been  transferred  to  other  courts.  In  some  localities, 

13  Boyd  v.  Nebraska,  143  U.  S.  135. 
"Act  of  Mar.  3,  1903,  §39. 


Political  Effects  191 

lists  of  petitioners  for  naturalization  are  required  to  be 
posted  in  public  places,  probably  on  the  theory  that  op- 
posing political  committees  will  be  moved  to  expose 
fraud.  The  rules  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  require  the  petitioner  to  file,  ten  days  before  his 
case  is  acted  on,  a  paper  stating  the  names  and  residences 
of  the  witnesses  by  whom  he  proposes  to  establish  his 
claim. 

Some  of  the  judges  of  local  courts  who  are  keenly  alive 
to  the  abuses  of  the  present  methods  of  naturalization, 
have  attempted  to  remedy  the  defective  legislation  by 
strict  rules  of  procedure.  Something  has  been  accom- 
plished in  this  way  in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and 
New  York,  but  there  has  been  no  uniformity  of  action, 
in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Bar  Associations  and  others 
interested.15  The  number  of  States  requiring  naturaliza- 
tion as  a  prerequisite  to  voting  is  gradually  increasing.16 
Minnesota,  for  example,  with  the  help  of  the  alien  vote, 
recently  adopted  a  constitutional  amendment  disfran- 
chising aliens.17  But  progress  along  this  line  is  slow. 

15  In  some  of  the  county  courts  of  Pennsylvania  the  judges 
have   required   applicants   to   mark   sample   ballots,   write   their 
names,  speak  English  and  show  some  knowledge  of  the  institu- 
tions of  the  country.     See  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger,  Aug.  24, 
1897,  and  Dec.  4,  1897.  In  New  Jersey,  one  judge  has  barred  aliens 
who  could  not  give  intelligent  answers  to  questions  as   to  the 
national  and  city  governments  or  who  paid  no  taxes.     See  New 
York   Herald,  Oct.   5,   1897.     In   New   York,   a   judge   recently 
rejected  sixty  applicants  on  the  ground  that  they  had  been  in 
the  country  five  years  and  were  unable  to  speak  English.     See 
letter  of  Mr.  Justice  Pryor  in  New  York  Sun,  Feb.  5,  1896. 

16  For  a  list  of  States  where  aliens  can  still  vote  see  supra  in 
this  chapter. 

17  Chicago  Record,  Oct.  23,   1897.     So  great  was  the  rush  to 
become  naturalized  that  "naturalization  picnics"  were  common 
in  all  parts  of  the   State. 


192  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

From  the  census  of  1900  18  it  appears  that  there  were 
then  1,070,126  male  aliens  of  voting  age  out  of  a  total 
population  of  about  seventy-six  millions.  The  number 
reported  was  about  one-quarter  of  all  the  adult  foreign- 
born  males.  The  largest  proportion  of  adult  male  aliens 
to  all  foreign-born  males,  is,  naturally,  among  those  in 
the  country  but  a  few  years ;  yet  it  appears  that  the 
percentage  of  "  aliens  "  and  "  unknown  "  in  1900  was 
slightly  less  than  in  i89o.19  The  figures  for  earlier  dec- 
ades are  not  available.  The  largest  proportions  of  aliens 
among  males  of  voting  age,  in  1900,  for  those  born  in 
Europe  or  Canada,  were :  Greeks,  57.8  per  cent. ; 
Hungarians,  53.1  per  cent.;  Italians,  53.0  per  cent.; 
Austrians,  44.6  per  cent. ;  Poles!,  38.9  per  cent. ;  Finns 
and  French  Canadians.  38.5  per  cent. 

In  certain  cases  the  indisposition  to  become  citizens  is 
due  to  the  temporary  character  of  residence  on  the  part  of 
aliens.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  Slovak  and  Italian 
birds  of  passage,  and  of  the  Canadians  who  work  part  of 
the  year  in  the  United  States,  and  then  return  home  for 
part  of  the  year.  The  large  number  of  aliens  among  the 
natives  of  Ireland  and  Germany  is  due  somewhat  to  the 
great  number  of  females  among  immigrants  from  these 
countries. 

The  pressure  for  naturalization  is  principally  due  to 
two  causes,  the  desire  to  get  employment,  for  which  first 
papers  are  a  condition  precedent,  and  the  solicitation  of 
political  managers.  Another  cause,  which  will  be  ad- 
verted to  hereafter,  is  the  desire  to  make  use  of  citizen- 
ship applications  or  certificates  in  foreign  countries.  In 

18  Vol.  I,  p.  918.     It  should  be  noted  that  "  aliens  "  in  the  cen- 
sus do  not  include  persons  who  have  taken  out  their  first  papers. 

19  See  Roland  P.  Faulkner,  in  Political  Science  Quarterly,  vol. 
19,  p.  44  (March,  1904). 


Political  Effects  193 

regard  to  the  first  cause,  in  some  States  the  competition 
of  recently  arrived  immigrants  has  led  to  the  passage 
of  laws  forbidding  the  employment  of  aliens  who  have 
not  declared  their  intention  to  become  citizens,  upon  or 
in  connection  with  any  State  or  municipal  works.20  Such 
laws  exist  in  Idaho,  Illinois  and  perhaps  other  States. 
In  Pennsylvania  and  Wyoming  none  but  citizens  may  be 
so  employed.  In  New  York,  preference  is  to  be  given 
to  citizens  of  that  State.  Preferences  are  also  exercised 
in  many  municipalities,  independently  of  statute.  The  in- 
fluence which  such  a  rule  must  exert  is  obvious,  and  not 
in  all  respects  beneficial.  It  has  been  stated  on  appar- 
ently reliable  authority  that  one-quarter  of  the  Italians 
in  the  street-cleaning  department  of  New  York  City  ob- 
tained their  positions  by  means  of  fraudulent  naturaliza- 
tion papers.  And  the  Deputy  Superintendent  of  Elec- 
tions recently  s^aid  that  from  ten  to  thirty  per  cent,  of 
the  papers  of  all  Italians  in  New  York  were  fraudulent. 
The  statute  of  Pennsylvania,  passed  some  years  since  at 
the  instance  of  those  whose  employment  was  affected 
by  the  influx  of  Slav  miners,  and  imposing  a  tax  of  three 
cents  a  day  upon  aliens  employed  in  the  State,  led  to 
naturalization  upon  an  enormous  scale.  This  law  was 
declared  unconstitutional  by  the  Federal  Courts,  but 
meanwhile  the  administration  of  naturalization  by  the 
various  County  Courts  was  found  very  diverse  and  de- 
fective; and  even  after  agitation  of  the  subject  had 
resulted  in  the  adoption  of  stricter  and  uniform  rules, 
certain  judges  continued  to  administer  the  law  as 
before.21 

20  On    this    subject    see    Frederick   J.    Stimson,    Handbook    of 
American   Labor   Law,   and   Second   Special   Report   of    United 
States  Commissioner  of  Labor  (1896). 

21  See  Philadelphia  Times,  Dec.  6,  1897. 


194          The  Effects  of  Immigration 

Just  before  important  elections,  the  political  managers 
of  the  great  parties  expend  great  energy  and  large 
amounts  of  money  in  naturalization.  The  numbers 
naturalized  in  the  large  cities  run  into  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands. With  the  pressure  of  sudden  naturalization,  in 
addition  to  the  regular  business  of  the  courts,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  examination  of  applicants  and  of  the 
witnesses  who  vouch  for  their  character  and  period  of 
residence,  is  often  of  the  most  superficial  character.  In 
New  York  City,  during  October,  1891,  about  seven 
thousand  papers  were  issued,  mostly  by  one  judge,  who 
examined  each  applicant  and  his  witnesses,  and  signed 
his  orders  at  the  rate  of  two  a  minute.22 

If  a  judge  tries  to  be  conscientious,  the  business  is 
transferred  to  another  who  is  less  particular;  and  it  is 
said  that  the  vouching  for  applicants  has  in  some  in- 
stances reached  the  status  of  a  regular  occupation.  It 
is  alleged  that  during  the  existence  of  the  Tweed  ring 
in  1868  in  New  York  City,  the  courts  issued  68,000  nat- 
uralization certificates,  many  of  them  in  blank  to  be 
filled  by  the  political  bosses  and  their  agents.  More  re- 
cently, in  one  of  the  District  Courts  of  the  United 
States,  the  clerk  was  in  the  habit  of  swearing  a  lot  of 
applicants  and  issuing  certificates,  no  judge  at  all  being 
present;  and  in  one  of  the  New  York  courts  thousands 
of  Italians  were  naturalized  through  an  interpreter. 
Similar  practices  were  discovered  in  Chicago  and  St. 
Louis.  All  this  is  a  great  contrast  to  the  practice  in  for- 
eign countries;  France  and  Denmark,  for  example, 
require  a  ten  years'  residence  and  a  rigid  examination. 

In  addition  to  the  frauds  practised  upon  the  courts, 

22  For  further  details  as  to  these  remarkable  proceedings,  see 
Senator  W.  E.  Chandler,  in  Forum,  vol.  13,  PP-  131-2,  (March, 
1892). 


Political  Effects  195 

recent  investigations  have  disclosed  wholesale  forgeries 
of  naturalization  certificates,  which  were  often  sold  to 
ignorant  aliens  who  had  no  intention  to  commit  any 
crime.  It  has  been  estimated  recently  that  there  are 
50,000  fraudulent  citizenship  papers  held  in  New  York 
City  alone ;  and  it  appeared  in  a  recent  investigation  that 
one  agency  sold  4000,  and  another  2000  papers,  in  1903. 
From  the  testimony  in  the  trial  of  a  former  clerk  of  a 
Federal  Court  in  New  York,  it  appeared  that  this  man 
sold  naturalization  certificates  made  out  in  blank  with 
forged  signatures,  at  from  five  to  ten  dollars  each. 

The  State  Superintendent  of  Elections  in  New  York 
stated  in  1904  that  probably  $600,000  was  made  in  the 
preceding  year  in  the  sale  of  fraudulent  naturalization 
papers,  and  that  100,000  such  papers  had  been  sold  in 
that  State.  It  was  discovered  by  the  Immigration 
Bureau  that  a  counterfeiting  club  for  the  manufacture 
of  such  papers  existed  in  New  Jersey,  run  by  the 
Italians.  It  was  also  shown  that  the  issue  of  fraudulent 
certificates  was  a  wide-spread  system  extending  from 
Boston  and  Providence  to  Albany,  New  York,  and  south 
to  Wilmington,  Delaware.  More  than  four  hundred 
convictions  were  obtained  for  this  crime  in  a  short  period 
in  New  York  City.  In  St.  Louis,  1342  papers  were 
found,  purporting  to  have  been  issued  in  one  evening,  a 
thing  physically  impossible  for  the  office  force.  How 
much  of  the  intelligent  public  spirit  essential  in  a  free 
democracy  can  be  expected  from  the  holders  of  such 
certificates  ? 

The  third  inducement  to  naturalization  is  the  use  of 
papers  by  the  immigrant  as  a  protection  upon  return- 
ing to  his  native  land,  or  as  a  help  to  pass  inspection 
upon  coming  hither  upon  a  second  trip.  It  was,  indeed, 
the  large  number  of  citizenship  certificates  presented  to 


196  The  Effects  of  Immigration 

the  immigration  authorities  at  New  York  by  Italian  im- 
migrants who  claimed  they  had  been  "  home  on  a  visit," 
which  led  to  the  discovery  of  a  fraudulent  issue  of  such 
papers  upon  a  large  scale.  The  celebrated  case  of 
Martin  Koszta  is  an  instance  of  the  use  made  of  natur- 
alization papers  abroad.  Koszta,  who  was  a  Hungarian, 
came  to  this  country  in  1850  and  declared  his  intention 
to  become  a  citizen.  He  remained  here  two  years,  and 
then  went  to  Turkey.  While  there,  he  was  seized  by 
an  Austrian  war  vessel  which  threatened  to  take  him 
back  to  Austria-Hungary.  The  commander  of  an 
American  vessel  at  Smyrna,  hearing  of  the  affair, 
cleared  for  action,  and  demanded  his  release.  He  was 
then  transferred  to  a  French  vessel,  and  subsequently 
released.  Our  government  took  the  ground  that  Koszta 
had  renounced  his  allegiance  to  Austria,  and  that  the 
country  of  his  birth  had  no  claim  on  him.  So  far  as  this 
contention  was  based  on  the  declaration  of  intention  to 
become  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  it  seems  ill- 
founded;  for  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  this  country  is 
taken  only  at  the  time  of  hearing  on  the  final  application. 
This  case  was  the  cause  of  great  controversy  between 
the  United  States  and  Austria,  and  attracted  much  atten- 
tion at  the  time.  Since,  there  have  been  many  other  in- 
stances where  aliens,  who  have  taken  out  first  papers, 
have  returned  to  their  native  country,  and  have  claimed 
the  protection  of  the  United  States  when  such  country 
attempted  to  enforce  its  laws,  especially  those  relating  to 
military  service.  A  considerable  proportion  of  these  are 
cases  of  former  citizens  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  of 
Jews  returning  to  Russia.  Recently,  an  American  war- 
ship was  sent  to  Hayti  at  the  request  of  certain  Syrian 
merchants  who  claimed  American  citizenship.  It  was 
subsequently  discovered  that  some  of  the  certificates  of 


Political  Effects  197 

citizenship  relied  upon  were  fraudulently  obtained,  at  a 
price  of  several  hundred  dollars. 

That  the  practice  of  fraudulently  obtaining  and  utiliz- 
ing American  naturalization  papers  is  widespread  at 
the  present  day  admits  of  no  question.  The  investiga- 
tions of  the  lawyer  appointed  as  special  assistant  to  the 
Federal  district-attorney  in  New  York  make  it  clear 
that  there  is  an  extensive  and  well-organized  system  of, 
obtaining  forged  and  fraudulent  papers.  The  Italians 
get  their  papers  in  many  parts  of  the  country ;  the 
Canadians  from  Buffalo  and  Chicago;  the  Turks  from 
Providence,  R.  I. ;  the  Armenians  from  Troy,  N.  Y. ; 
the  Syrians  from  Waterbury  and  New  Haven,  Conn., 
and  so  on ;  but  the  worst  place  of  all  in  this  regard  seems 
to  be  New  York  City.  It  is  stated  that  seventy-five  per 
cent  of  the  papers  examined  in  Westchester  County  are 
fraudulent. 

The  use  of  fraudulent  papers,  by  aliens  in  passing  the 
immigration  inspection,23  led  the  bureau  to  undertake 
an  investigation.  The  report  of  Special  Inspector 
Marcus  Braun  fully  confirmed  what  has  been  said  as 
to  the  extent  of  the  frauds,  and  the  burden  imposed  upon 
this  country  as  a  result.24  Professor  Crawford  of  the 
American  College  at  Beirut  says : 

"  A  characteristic  of  such  returning  Syrians  is  the 
almost  universal  custom  to  come  back  supplied  with 
American  naturalization  papers ;  they  do  not,  however, 
disclose  such  citizenship ;  in  fact  they  conceal  this  cir- 
cumstance as  much  as  they  possibly  can.  They  still  pose 
as  Turkish  subjects,  and,  probably  because  most  of  these 
naturalization  papers  are  obtained  fraudulently,  they  re- 
frain from  asserting  their  American  citizenship  until  for 

-*  See  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration, 
1904,  p.  46. 

24  See  ibid.,  pp.  46-48. 


The  Effects  of  Immigration 

some  reason  or  other  they  get  in  trouble  and  difficulties 
with  the  Turkish  authorities,  when,  and  in  which  event, 
their  certificate  of  citizenship  is  immediately  produced., 
and  the  American  consul  called  upon  for  protection,  giv- 
ing no  end  of  inconvenience  to  our  said  consul." 

In  conclusion,  a  word  may  be  said  as  to  the  relation 
of  naturalization  to  immigration  in  general.  When  the 
immigration  question  is  being  discussed,  many  persons 
say :  "  Let  everyone  come  in,  but  let  us  be  very  careful 
whom  we  allow  to  vote."  It  is  believed  that  the  facts 
set  forth  in  other  parts  of  this  volume  make  it  clear 
that  even  the  strictest  possible  naturalization  law  would 
but  touch  the  outskirts  of  the  immigration  problem. 
The  ballot  is  but  one  way  in  which,  at  considerable  in- 
tervals, the  naturalized  foreigner  affects  our  life  in  one 
of  its  phases;  whether  alien  or  citizen,  he  is  affecting 
our  life  in  countless  other  and  more  fundamental  ways 
all  the  time. 

It  is  true,  no  doubt,  that  suffrage  is  a  valuable  agent 
in  assimilation,25  and  that  the  presence  of  large  bodies 
of  aliens  in  the  country  is  undesirable,  for  legal  and 
diplomatic  reasons.  Nevertheless,  the  protection  of  the 
franchise  is  a  matter  of  great  importance  in  a  country 
where  mere  numbers  determine  all  elections. 

25  Mr.  Gino  C.  Speranza,  however,  holds  the  opposite  opinion. 
He  contends  that  the  politicians  prevent  assimilation  as  far  as  pos- 
sible in  order  to  handle  the  foreign  vote  more  easily.  Outlook, 
vol.  76,  p.  928  (April  16,  1904). 


PART   III 
IMMIGRATION    LEGISLATION 


CHAPTER  X 
HISTORY  OF  IMMIGRATION  LEGISLATION 

A.     LEGISLATION    FAVORING    IMMIGRANTS 

VARIOUS  Federal  statutes  have  been  passed  at  different 
times  to  secure  adequate  protection  and  good  treatment 
for  immigrants  during  the  voyage  hither.1  Thus,  in 
1819,  it  was  provided  that  the  master  of  a  vessel  should 
not  carry  more  than  two  passengers  for  every  five  tons, 
and  that  a  specified  quantity  of  certain  provisions  should 
be  carried  for  every  passenger.  This  act  also  required  the 
master  to  deliver,  on  arrival,  sworn  manifests  showing 
the  age,  sex,  occupation,  nativity  and  destination  of 
passengers.  The  act  of  1855  limited  the  number  that 
could  be  brought  to  one  for  every  two  tons,  not  includ- 
ing children  under  one  year,  and  counting  two  children 
between  one  and  eight  years  of  age  as  one  person.  It 
also  provided  that  each  passenger  on  the  main  and  poop 
decks  of  vessels  should  have  sixteen  feet  of  floor  space, 
and  on  the  lower  decks  eighteen  feet. 

The  present  regulations  on  this  subject  were  estab- 
lished by  the  Act  of  1882.  This  provides  that,  in  a 
steamship,  the  unobstructed  spaces  shall  be  sufficient  to 
allow  one  hundred  cubic  feet  for  each  passenger  on  the 
main  deck  and  the  next  deck,  and  one  hundred  and 

1  For  the  Carriage  of  Passenger  Acts,  see  Act  of  1819,  c.  46 ; 
Act  of  1847,  c.  16;  Act  of  1847,  c.  34;  Act  of  1848,  c.  7;  Act  of 
1848,  c.  41;  Act  of  1849,  c.  in;  Act  of  Mar.  3,  1855,  c.  213,  10 
Stat.  715;  Revised  Statutes,  §§  4252-4277;  Act  of  Aug.  2,  1882, 
c.  374,  22  Stat.  186. 

201 


2O2  Immigration  Legislation 

twenty  cubic  feet  on  the  second  deck  below  the  main 
deck;  and  it  forbids  the  carrying  of  passengers  on  any 
other  decks  than  those  mentioned.  In  a  sailing-vessel, 
passengers  shall  be  carried  only  on  the  main  deck  or 
the  next  deck,  with  an  allowance  of  one  hundred  and 
ten  cubic  feet  for  each  person.  No  one  is  to  be  carried 
in  any  space  the  vertical  height  of  which  is  less  than 
six  feet. 

There  are  also  provisions  regulating  the  occupancy  of 
berths,  light  and  air,  ventilation,  toilet  rooms,  food,  and 
hospital  facilities.  Explosives  and  other  dangerous 
articles  are  not  to  be  carried,  nor  animals  with  or  below 
passengers.  Lists  of  passengers,  as  under  the  Act  of 
1819,  are  to  be  delivered  to  the  boarding  officer  of  cus- 
toms. In  order  to  protect  immigrants  from  designing 
persons,  it  was  provided,  in  1884,  that  no  keeper  of  a 
sailors'  boarding-house  or  hotel,  and  no  runner  or  per- 
son interested  in  one,  could  board  an  incoming  vessel 
until  after  it  reached  its  dock.2 

Under  the  head  of  legislation  favorable  to  immigrants 
may  also  be  mentioned  the  Act  of  1864  for  encouraging 
immigration.3  This  act  provided  that  the  President 
should  appoint  a  "  Commissioner  of  Immigration  " ;  that 
immigrants  might  assign  their  wages  for  a  year  or  lessfc 
or  encumber  their  land  in  order  to  pay  the  expenses  of 
emigrating;  that  no  immigrant,  unless  he  should  de- 
clare his  intention  to  become  a  citizen,  should  be  liable 
to  military  service  in  the  Civil  War ;  that  a  United  States 
Emigrant  Office  should  be  established  in  New  York 
City,  and  the  superintendent  should  make  contracts  with 
railroads  and  transportation  companies  for  carrying 


2  Treasury  Department,  Circular  of  July  21, 

3  Act  of  July  4,  1864,  c.  246,  13  Stat.  385,  repealed  by  Act  of 
Mar.  30,  1868,  c.  38,  15  Stat.  58. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    203 

immigrants  to  their  destination,  and  should  provide 
them  with  all  needed  information;  and  that  the  Com- 
missioner should  furnish  an  annual  report  to  Congress 
of  the  workings  of  his  bureau.  This  act  was  in  the 
nature  of  a  War  measure  and  was  passed  in  order  to  fill 
the  places  of  men  sent  to  the  front.  After  the  end  of 
the  War,  the  army  re-entered  peaceful  pursuits,  and  the 
necessity  for  the  act  ceased.  Thereafter,  the  authorities 
of  the  State  of  New  York  took  charge  of  the  immigrant 
business  at  the  port  of  New  York  until  1882. 

State  legislation  favoring  immigration  has  usually 
taken  the  form  of  commissions  appointed  to  secure  suit- 
able colonists  for  the  unsettled  parts  of  the  country. 
Such  commissions  exist  in  some  of  the  Southern  and 
Western  States,  and  many  of  them  send  agents  to  other 
parts  of  the  United  States  or  to  Europe  to  advertise  the 
advantages  of  their  respective  States  and  induce  immi- 
grants to  come  thither.  Under  the  Federal  laws,  States 
are  exempt  from  the  prohibition  against  advertising  for 
immigrants  in  foreign  countries.4  The  work  of  the 
State  commissions  is  in  many  places  supplemented  by 
that  of  local  voluntary  associations  having  the  same 
object. 

B.     STATE   RESTRICTIVE   LEGISLATION  5 

There  have  been  comparatively  few  State  laws  on  the 
subject  of  immigration  as  distinguished  from  laws  re- 

4Act  of  March  3,  1903,  §  6.  For  the  State  laws  creating 
immigration  commissions  see  William  C.  Endicott,  Jr.,  Immi- 
gration Laws,  State  and  National  (State  Department,  1887). 

6  See  William  C.  Endicott,  Jr.,  Immigration  Laws,  State  and 
National  (State  Department,  1887)  ;  Second  Special  Report  of 
the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor,  "  State  Labor  Laws" 
(1896);  Frederick  J.  Stimson,  Handbook  of  American  Labor 
Law. 


2O4  Immigration  Legislation 

lating  to  the  employment  of  aliens.  The  reason  is  that 
none  of  the  States,  except  those  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard, 
have  until  recently  been  adversely  affected  by  immigra- 
tion to  any  appreciable  extent,  and  because  in  1882  the 
Federal  government  took  charge  of  the  whole  subject 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  States.  The  first  legislation  on 
the  part  of  any  State  in  relation  to  immigration  was  not 
the  result  of  race  prejudice  or  political  influence;  it  was 
due  essentially  to  the  same  causes  which  led  Congress 
to  legislate  generally  on  the  subject  in  1882.  The  States 
on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  early  found  themselves  sub- 
jected to  serious  annoyance  and  expense  because  of  the 
large  numbers  of  diseased  and  pauper  immigrants  which 
came  upon  their  public  institutions  for  support,  and  the 
same  was  later  true  of  California  and  Louisiana. 

The  first  attempt  to  regulate  immigration  in  New 
York  was  an  act  passed  in  1824,  requiring  masters  of 
vessels  to  report  to  the  Mayor  of  New  York  City  the 
name,  place  of  birth,  age,  and  occupation  of  each  immi- 
grant. It  also  required  a  bond  on  demand  of  the  mayor 
to  save  the  city  harmless  from  the  support  of  a  passenger 
becoming  a  public  charge,  and  to  return  any  person 
deemed  likely  to  become  a  public  charge  to  the  place 
whence  he  came.  The  part  of  this  act  relating  to  reports, 
was  held  to  be  within  the  police  power  of  the  State  and 
valid,  but  the  other  provisions  were  declared  void.6 
Soon  after,  owing  to  the  large  number  of  aliens  arriv- 
ing in  a  diseased  condition  or  becoming  ill  subsequent 
to  arrival,  an  act  was  passed  levying  a  tax  of  one  dollar 
and  fifty  cents  for  each  foreign  cabin  passenger  and  one 
dollar  for  each  foreign  steerage  passenger  or  sailor,  and 
a  tax  of  twenty-five  cents  for  each  person  on  board  any 

«  Act  of  Feb.  ii,  1824.  See  City  of  New  York  v.  Miln,  n  Pet. 
(U.  S.)  103. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    205 

coasting  vessel  arriving  at  the  port  of  New  York.  These 
moneys  were  to  be  used  for  the  support  of  the  immigrant 
hospital.  It  was  held  that  this  act  was  unconstitutional 
on  the  ground  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
Article  I,  Section  8,  provided  that  Congress  should  have 
power  "  to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations."  7 

The  statute  was  then  modified  so  as  to  require  a  bond 
or,  in  the  alternative,  a  tax;  but  in  1876  it  was  decided 
that  the  whole  subject  was  national  in  its  character  and 
had  been  confided  to  Congress  under  the  commerce 
clause.8  Finally,  in  1881,  New  York,  under  the  guise 
of  an  inspection  act  to  detect  criminals,  paupers,  etc.,  at- 
tempted to  levy  a  head  tax  of  one  dollar;  but  this  also 
was  declared  illegal.9 

The  whole  subject  having  been  dealt  with  by  Con- 
gress, it  would  not  be  profitable  to  give  the  history  of 
the  various  State  statutes  in  detail.  They  have  related, 
in  general,  like  those  of  New  York  already  cited,  to 
detecting  diseased  persons,  criminals,  paupers,  and  per- 
sons likely  to  become  public  charges,  and  providing  for 

7  Passenger  Cases,  7  How.  (U.  S.)  572  (1849). 

8  Henderson  v.   Wickham,  92  U.   S.  259.     Similar  regulations 
in  Massachusetts,  Louisiana  and  California  were  declared  void 
on  the  same  ground.    Passenger  Cases,  7  How.  572;   Commis- 
sioners v.  North  German  Lloyd,  92  U.  S.  259;  Chy  Lung  v.  Free- 
man, 92  U.  S.  276;  Ah  Pong,  3  Sawyer,  275;  People  v.  Pacific 
Mail  Steamship  Co.,  8  Sawyer,  640. 

8  Laws  of  1881,  c.  432.  New  York  v.  Companie  Generale 
Transatlantique,  107  U.  S.  59. 

The  Federal  Act  of  May  31,  1870,  c.  114  (16  Stat.  144)  ;  U.  S. 
Rev.  St.,  §  2164,  expressly  provided  that  no  tax  or  charge  should 
be  imposed  by  any  State  upon  immigrants  from  one  country  which 
was  not  equally  imposed  upon  immigrants  from  any  other  coun- 
try; and  the  requiring  of  a  bond  as  a  condition  of  landing  was 
held  to  be  a  charge  and  in  conflict  with  the  Act  See  Re  Ah 
Fong,  3  Sawy.  (U.  S.)  144. 


206  Immigration  Legislation 

the  return  of  such  persons  whence  they  came ;  or  the 
giving  of  a  bond  by  those  bringing  them  to  relieve  the 
State  or  municipality  in  which  they  settled  of  any  burden 
caused  by  their  presence.10  It  is  obvious  that  any  State 
law  regulating  immigration  must  have  proved  nugatory 
sooner  or  later,  owing  to  the  impossibility  of  preventing 
the  entrance  of  aliens  from  contiguous  territory.  This 
has  proved  a  troublesome  matter  even  in  regard  to 
Federal  laws,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  in  making  the  regulation  of  immigration  a 
Federal  matter  is  apparent. 

C.    FEDERAL  RESTRICTIVE  LEGISLATION  n 

The  attitude  of  desiring  some  restriction  placed  on  im- 
migration is  not  of  recent  origin ;  it  has  existed  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree  since  the  foundation  of  the  govern- 
ment. The  Federalists  and  their  successors,  the  Whigs 
and  Republicans,  were  at  various  times  strongly  opposed 
to  unlimited  accessions  of  foreigners.  Washington 
doubted  the  advisability  of  immigration  except  of  certain 
skilled  mechanics.  He  further  objected  to  giving  for- 
eigners places  in  the  government,  with  the  exception  of 
Lafayette.  Under  the  presidency  of  John  Adams,  a  resi- 
dence of  fourteen  years  was  established  as  a  prerequisite 
for  naturalization,  although,  as  we  have  seen,  a  reaction 
from  the  Federalist  point  of  view  later  reduced  the  period 
to  five  years.  Madison  favored  immigration ;  but  Jeffer- 
son, though  bitterly  opposed  to  the  Federalists,  went  even 
further  than  Washington  in  his  objection,  and  expressed 
the  wish  that  there  were  an  ocean  of  fire  between  this 
country  and  Europe  so  that  it  might  be  impossible  for  any 

10  See,  for  example,  the  provisions  contained  in  the  General 
Statutes  of  Massachusetts,  chapter  71. 

11  See  Appendix  III. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    207 

more  immigrants  to  come  hither. 12  At  a  later  period,  in 
the  thirties  and  forties,  when  immigration  had  risen  to 
an  important  volume  and  consisted  for  the  most  part  of 
persons  of  a  different  race  and  religion  from  those  already 
here,  the  nativistic  sentiment  became  strengthened  and 
led  to  the  so-called  Know-Nothing  party. 

The  violence  of  the  nativistic  movement  went  so  far 
as  to  precipitate  Catholic  riots  in  1844,  and  to  cause  a 
re-enactment  of  the  mortmain  statutes  in  many  juris- 
dictions. Great  immigration,  due  to  the  Irish  famine, 
occurred  during  the  years  from  1845  to  ^5°  and  resulted 
in  the  arrival  of  about  as  many  aliens  as  had  been  re- 
ceived during  the  whole  twenty  years  previous.  Most 
of  this  Irish  immigration  was  Roman  Catholic,  and  a 
nativistic  outbreak  caused  the  destruction  of  two  Catho- 
lic churches  in  Philadelphia  and  the  burning  of  a  con- 
vent in  Boston.  In  1845,  s^x  nativistic  Congressmen  were 
elected  to  the  Twenty-ninth  Congress,  four  from  New 
York,  and  two  from  Philadelphia.  The  Know-Nothing 
movement  was  an  offshoot  from  the  Whigs  and  later 
from  the  Republicans.  It  came  to  public  attention  promi- 
nently in  1852,  and  owed  its  name  to  the  fact  that  it  was 
a  secret,  oath-bound  fraternity,  and  that  its  members, 
when  asked  concerning  its  real  name  and  objects,  always 
answered :  "  I  don't  know."  In  1854,  this  party  carried 
the  election  in  Massachusetts  and  Delaware,  and  polled  a 
great  number  of  votes  in  New  York.  In  1855,  it  elected 
governors  and  legislatures  in  New  York  and  four  New 
England  States,  and  in  the  South  it  was  more  or  less 
successful  in  nine  States.  In  1856,  it  appeared  as  a 
full-fledged  political  organization  and  nominated  Millard 

12  In  1812,  the  Hartford  Convention  proclaimed  that  "  the  stock 
population  of  these  States  is  amply  sufficient  to  render  this  nation 
in  due  time  sufficiently  great  and  powerful." 


208  Immigration  Legislation 

Fillmore  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  In  the 
election  which  followed,  Buchanan,  the  Democratic  can- 
didate, received  174  electoral  and  1,838,169  popular 
votes ;  John  C.  Fremont  received  1 14  electoral  and 
1,341,264  popular  votes;  while  Fillmore  received  eight 
electoral  and  874,504  popular  votes.13  It  is  probable 
that  this  vote  failed  to  show  the  full  force  of  the  native 
American  sentiment;  but  the  movement  resulted  in  con- 
siderable agitation  and  pamphleteering,  and  its  violence 
and  partisanship  caused  a  reaction  which  has  ever  since 
been  a  handicap  to  serious  and  impartial  consideration  of 
the  immigration  question.  In  1856,  eight  of  the  thirty- 
two  States  had  native  American  governors.  In  the 
Thirty-fifth  Congress,  in  1857,  the  party  had  five  Senators 
and  fourteen  Representatives.  In  the  Thirty-sixth  Con- 
gress, it  had  two  Senators  and  twenty-three  Representa- 
tives, all  from  the  South.  But  after  the  Thirty-sixth 
Congress  it  went  to  pieces  rapidly  and  had  no  representa- 
tion in  any  subsequent  Congress. 

The  Know-Nothings  charged  that  immigrants  were 
corrupting  the  ballot  and  trying  to  establish  ecclesiastical 
supremacy  in  the  Republic.  Unquestionably,  many  of 
the  immigrants  introduced  new  standards  of  living  and 
of  thought,  and,  as  they  were  of  a  low  grade  of  industrial 
and  social  intelligence,  they  became  inevitably  associated 
with  much  that  was  objectionable.  A  foreigner,  writing 
in  1854  in  opposition  to  the  Know-Nothing  party,  ad- 
mitted that  the  native  population  was  being  to  some  ex- 
tent degraded  through  immigration,  and  stated  that  the 
taverns  and  drinking  and  gambling  places  were  chiefly 
kept  by  foreigners.  In  1850  statistics  showed  one  pau- 
per to  every  317  natives  and  to  every  32  foreigners; 
one  criminal  to  1619  natives  and  to  every  154  for- 

13  Sydney  G.  Fisher,  in  Forum,  vol.  14,  p.  608  (Jan.  1893). 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    209 

eigners.14  It  is  probable  that  the  Know-Nothing  move- 
ment was  not  purely  the  result  of  solicitude  for  the  moral 
welfare  of  the  country  or  of  apprehension  for  the  per- 
manence of  religious  liberty.  The  immigrants  of  the 
thirties  and  forties  underbid  the  native  labor  and  the 
prejudice  caused  by  industrial  competition  probably 
played  as  important  a  part  as  any  other  factor  in  this 
movement.  In  the  words  of  General  Walker: 

"Then  came  the  foreigner,  making  his  way  into  the 
little  village,  bringing,  small  blame  to  him,  not  only  a 
vastly  lower  standard  of  living,  but  too  often  actual  pres- 
ent incapacity  even  to  understand  the  refinement  of  life 
and  thought  in  the  country  in  which  he  sought  a  home. 
Our  people  had  to  look  upon  houses  that  were  mere  shells 
for  human  habitation,  the  gate  unhung,  the  shutters  flap- 
ping or  falling,  green  pools  in  the  yard,  babes  and  young 
children  rolling  about  half  naked  or  worse — neglected, 
dirty,  unkempt." 

Nevertheless,  other  political  questions  such  as  the  tariff 
and  the  Mexican  War,  operated  to  prevent  the  nativistic 
movement  from  having  full  play.  After  the  revolution 
of  1848  in  Germany  there  was  a  large  immigration  of 
natives  of  that  country,  many  of  whom  were  Protestant ; 
and  the  Know-Nothing  movement  was  soon  eclipsed  in 
the  great  moral  questions  connected  with  the  issue  of 
slavery  and  the  integrity  of  the  Union. 

During  the  period  of  the  War,  immigration  fell  to  a 
very  small  figure  and  did  not  reach  its  maximum  again 
for  some  time.  In  1864,  the  government,  feeling  per- 
haps the  need  of  unskilled  labor  to  take  up  the  numerous 
enterprises  which  were  started  at  the  close  of  the  War, 
and  to  supply  the  place  of  that  part  of  the  population 
which  perished  or  was  rendered  incapable  of  work, 

14  Sydney  G.  Fisher,  in  Forum,  vol.  14,  p.  611   (Jan.  1893). 


2IO  Immigration  Legislation 

passed  the  Act  of  1864,  mention  of  which  has  already 
been  made  in  this  chapter,  intended  to  encourage  immi- 
gration and  to  direct  and  facilitate  its  distribution  to  the 
regions  where  it  was  most  desired.  By  1866,  immigra- 
tion had  increased  to  upwards  of  330,000,  and  in  1868 
the  Act  of  1864  was  repealed;  but  it  was  not  until  1873 
that  the  high  tide  of  immigration  equalled  the  highest 
previous  maximum,  which  had  occurred  in  1854.  As 
we  have  seen,  several  States  attempted  to  make  immigra- 
tion as  a  whole  pay  for  the  burdens  of  its  dependent  and 
delinquent  members,  and  to  preserve  the  body  politic 
from  the  influx  of  undesirable  individuals. 

The  first  exercise  of  the  power  of  Congress  was  not 
in  order  to  regulate  immigration  generally,  but  to  sup- 
press one  specific  evil,  the  cooly  trade.15  It  was  due 
entirely  to  economic  and  social  considerations,  and  had 
nothing  in  common  with  the  Know-Nothing  movement 
of  the  earlier  period. 

The  regulations  in  regard  to  cooly  traffic  were  not 
specifically  directed  against  Chinese  as  such,  but  against 
a  grade  of  cheap  Oriental  labor  imported  largely  under 
a  system  of  contract  which  amounted  to  a  species  of 
slavery.  The  Act  of  February  19,  i862,16  and  the  Act 
of  February  9,  i869,17  prohibited  the  building,  equipping, 
loading,  or  preparing  any  vessel  licensed,  enrolled,  or 
registered  in  the  United  States  for  procuring  coolies 
from  any  Oriental  country  to  be  held  for  service  or 

16  Chiefly  for  historical  reasons  the  subject  of  Chinese  immi- 
gration and  legislation  has  always  formed  a  separate  subject  in 
Federal  law;  and  the  so-called  Chinese  Exclusion  Acts  have 
never  been  considered  as  "  immigration  acts."  For  this  reason, 
the  subject  of  legislation  regarding  Chinese  will  be  considered 
by  itself,  in  chapter  xv. 

16  Chapter  27,  12  Stat.  340. 

17  Chapter  24,  15  Stat.  269. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    211 

labor.18  Vessels  employed  in  the  cooly  trade  were  to  be 
forfeited,  and  the  building  of  vessels  to  engage  in  this 
trade,  as  well  as  the  trade  itself,  was  made  a  criminal 
offence.  The  act  did  not  interfere  with  the  voluntary 
emigration  of  coolies  or  others  if  a  certificate  had  been 
made  before  the  consular  agent  of  the  United  States, 
at  the  port  of  departure,  certifying  to  the  fact  of  such 
voluntary  emigration.  Naval  vessels  of  the  United 
States  were  given  the  power  of  search  for  violations  of 
the  act  and  of  seizure  upon  proof  of  violations.  The 
Act  of  1875  19  provided  that  any  person  contracting  or 
attempting  to  contract  to  supply  cooly  labor  to  another 
should  be  guilty  of  felony.  These  provisions  as  to  cooly 
trade  are  still  in  force. 

The  Act  of  1875  also  excluded  women  imported  for 
immoral  purposes,  and  convicts.  The  immigration  of 
large  numbers  of  unmarried  Chinese  laborers  into  Cali- 
fornia and  adjoining  States  had  resulted  in  a  demand  for 
Chinese  and  Japanese  prostitutes,  and  several  so-called 
companies  had  engaged  in  the  business  of  importing 
them.20  The  act  made  such  importing  a  felony  and  pro- 
vided for  the  search  of  vessels  suspected  of  containing 
persons  of  the  excluded  classes.21  Convicts  were  men- 
tioned in  the  statute  on  account  of  the  widespread  prac- 
tice on  the  part  of  foreign  courts  of  remitting  sentences 
on  condition  of  emigration. 

The  enormous  immigration  of  1882  and  the  agitation 
of  the  laboring  classes,  who  were  adversely  affected  by 

18  Cp.  U.  S.  Rev.  Stats.  §§  2158-2164. 

19  Act  of  March  3,  18/5,  c.  141,  §  4,  18  Stat.  477. 

20  This  traffic  still  exists.     See  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commis- 
sion, vol.  15,  pp.  771-794. 

21  It  was  afterwards  held  that  these  provisions  applied  to  im- 
migrants  from  all  countries,   whether  Oriental  or  not,   United 
States  v.  Johnson,  7  Fed.  Rep.  453  (1881). 


212  Immigration    Legislation 

it,  led  to  the  passage  in  that  year  of  the  first  general 
immigration  act.22  This  law  added  to  the  classes 
already  excluded,  lunatics,  idiots,  and  persons  unable  to 
care  for  themselves  without  becoming  public  charges. 
It  also  provided  for  a  head  tax  of  fifty  cents  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  inspection,  and  for  the  relief  of  immigrants  in 
distress.  The  United  States  did  not,  however,  at  once 
take  entire  charge  of  immigration,  but  under  the  author- 
ity of  the  act  made  contracts  for  a  time  with  various 
State  boards  appointed  to  supervise  immigration  matters 
within  their  respective  States.  This  method  was  found 
to  be  cumbersome  and  lacking  in  uniformity  and  was 
abandoned  after  a  few  years'  trial. 

The  next  legislation  had  to  do  with  contract  labor.23 
After  the  recovery  from  the  panic  of  1873,  industrial 
enterprises,  especially  in  the  mining  regions,  developed 
rapidly;  and  this  in  turn  caused  a  growth  in  the  ranks 
of  organized  labor.  Conflicts  arose  between  employers 
and  employees,  and  the  former  attempted  to  resist  the 
demands  of  the  latter  by  importing  from  Europe  large 
numbers  of  laborers  under  contract  to  work  for  lower 
wages  than  the  labor  unions  asked.  As  the  unions  grew 
in  power  and  became  confederated  into  the  powerful  or- 
ganization known  as  the  Knights  of  Labor,  a  demand  was 
made  upon  Congress  for  legislation  to  prevent  the  im- 
portation of  the  lower  grades  of  unskilled  labor  under 
contract.  This  demand  was  complied  with,24  and  the 
resulting  acts  were  held  to  be  constitutional  under  the 

22  Act  of  Aug.  3,  1882,  c.  376,  22  Stat.  214. 

23  For  a  digest  of  the  Contract  Labor  Acts  and  the  decisions 
under  them   see   the  author's   article   in  Harvard   Law  Review, 
vol.  11,  p.  525  (1898). 

24  Act  of  Feb.  26,  1885,  c.  164,  23  Stat.  332;  Act  of  Oct.  18, 
1888,  c.  1210,  25  Stat.  567. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    213 

commerce  clause.25  The  courts  did  much,  however,  to 
render  this  legislation  nugatory  by  interpreting  it  so 
that  the  contract  in  question  must  have  been  a  bi-latcral 
agreement  made  previous  to  the  immigration  of  the 
laborer.  In  other  words,  an  offer  to  employ  followed 
by  the  immigration  of  the  alien  was  held  not  to  be 
within  the  prohibition  of  the  law;  and  the  employers 
desiring  to  import  labor  soon  found  means  to  let  it  be 
known  that  employment  was  to  be  had,  without  making 
any  contract. 

Certain  classes  of  persons  were  excepted  from  the 
operation  of  these  laws,  partly  by  express  provision  and 
partly  by  the  decisions  of  the  courts.  Thus,  servants  or 
domestics  of  foreigners  temporarily  residing  here,  per- 
sons to  be  employed  in  any  new  industry  if  suitable  labor 
could  not  be  found  here,  actors,  artists,  singers,  lec- 
turers, personal  and  domestic  servants,  ministers  and 
teachers,  were  allowed  to  come  in  under  contract.  Con- 
tract laborers  were  to  return  whence  they  came,26 
and  any  coming  unlawfully  were  liable  to  arrest  and  de- 
portation within  one  year  after  landing.27 

Immigration  diminished  from  1882  to  1886,  when  it 
was  about  330,000  persons,  but  after  this  it  increased 
until,  in  1891,  it  reached  more  than  560,000.  This  in- 
crease, together  with  the  ascertained  inefficiency  of  the 
laws  passed  up  to  that  time,  led  to  a  general  codification 
and  strengthening  of  the  various  statutes  in  the  Act  of 

25  United  States  v.  Craig,  28  Fed.  Rep.  795  (1886)  ;  Re  Florio 
43  Fed.  Rep.  114  (1890);  Lees  v.  United  States,  150  U.  S.  476 

(1893). 

26  Act  of  Feb.  23,  1887,  c.  220,  24  Stat.  415. 

27  Act  of  Oct.   18,   1888,  c.   1210,  25   Stat.  567.     See  Japanese 
Immigrant  Case,  189  U.  S.  80  (1903);  United  States  v.  Artcago, 
68  Fed.  Rep.  883   (1895). 


214  Immigration  Legislation 

iSgi.28  This  act  added  to  the  excluded  classes:  pau- 
pers, persons  suffering  from  a  loathsome  or  dangerous 
contagious  disease,  polygamists  and  persons  whose  ticket 
or  passage  had  been  paid  for  by  another  or  who  had  been 
assisted  by  others  to  come,  unless  it  was  affirmatively 
shown  on  special  inquiry  that  they  were  not  otherwise  ob- 
jectionable. The  encouraging  of  contract  laborers  to 
emigrate  by  advertisements  was  forbidden,  and  the  cir- 
culars and  posters  of  steamship  companies  were  limited 
to  statements  of  sailings  and  passage  rates. 

The  Act  of  1891  enlarged  the  scope  of  the  Immigra- 
tion Bureau's  work  in  two  other  important  respects. 
First,  it  provided  in  terms  for  the  return  of  all  debarred 
aliens,  and  for  the  return  within  one  year  after  landing 
of  all  aliens  entering  unlawfully  or  becoming  public 
charges  from  causes  arising  prior  to  landing.  Second,  it 
took  away  from  the  courts  the  power  to  revise  the  de- 
cision of  immigration  officers  that  an  immigrant  should 
not  be  permitted  to  land ; 29  but  the  courts  had  the  power 
to  pass  upon  the  question  whether  the  petitioner  were 
an  alien  immigrant  or  not.30  The  Act  of  1891  also 
established  the  office  of  Superintendent  of  Immigration, 
a  title  later  changed  to  Commissioner-General  of  Immi- 
gration.31 It  was  not,  however,  until  1894  that  provi- 
sion was  made  for  the  appointment  of  commissioners  of 
immigration  for  the  several  ports.32 

The  extensions  of  the  jurisdiction  and  of  the  list  of  ex- 
cluded classes,  provided  by  the  Act  of  1891,  led,  in  1893.  to 

28  Act  of  Mar.  3,  1891,  c.  551,  26  Stat.  1084.  Held  constitu- 
tional in  Ekiu  v.  United  States,  142  U.  S.  651  (1892)  ;  Japanese 
Immigrant  Case,  189  U.  S.  86  (1903). 

29££tw  v.  United  States,  142  U.  S.  651  (1892). 

30  Re  Simone,  108  Fed.  Rep.  942  (1901). 

81  Act  of  Mar.  2,  1895,  c.  177,  28  Stat.  780. 

32  Act  of  Aug.  18,  1894,  c.  301,  28  Stat.  391. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    215 

an  extension  of  the  administrative  provisions  covering  the 
inspection  and  deportation  of  aliens.33  The  Act  of  1893 
was  merely  an  administrative  measure,  which  remained  in 
force  for  ten  years,  and  many  decisions  were  made  under 
it.  It  did  not,  however,  add  to  the  excluded  classes. 
Its  principal  provisions  were  the  requiring  masters  of 
vessels  to  furnish  manifests  giving  certain  information 
in  regard  to  immigrants ;  the  verification  of  such  mani- 
fests by  the  surgeon ;  provision  for  boards  of  special  in- 
quiry, consisting  of  a  number  of  inspectors ;  and 
compelling  steamship  companies  to  post,  in  the  offices  of 
their  agents,  copies  of  the  United  States  immigration 
laws,  and  to  call  the  attention  of  purchasers  of  tickets 
to  them.  It  was  also  provided  that  no  bond  that  an 
immigrant  would  not  become  a  public  charge  should  be 
received  except  by  special  authority  of  the  Superinten- 
dent approved  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  This 
last  provision  merely  enacted  the  growing  practice  of 
the  department  to  discourage  the  giving  of  bonds,  as 
these  were  found  to  be  practically  useless,  owing  to  the 
expense,  delay,  and  difficulty  involved  in  attempting  to 
bring  suit  upon  them. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  attempts  to  get  rid  of 
the  interference  of  the  courts  in  immigration  matters. 
Formerly  habeas  corpus  proceedings  were  frequently 
resorted  to  with  the  result  that  the  efficiency  of  executive 
action  was  much  impaired.  In  1894  an  act  was  passed 
providing  that  "  in  every  case  where  an  alien  is  ex- 
cluded from  admission  into  the  United  States  under  any 
law  or  treaty  now  existing  or  hereafter  made,  the  de- 
cision of  the  appropriate  immigration  or  customs  officers, 
if  adverse  to  the  admission  of  such  alien,  shall  be  final, 
unless  reversed  on  appeal  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
33  Act  of  March  3,  1893,  c.  206,  27  Stat.  569. 


2i6  Immigration  Legislation 

ury."34  The  result  of  this  was  that  the  right  to  de- 
termine whether  an  alien  was  an  immigrant  was  taken 
from  the  courts  entirely ;  and  the  immigration  acts  were 
made  applicable  to  aliens  who,  having  acquired  a  domi- 
cile here  and  then  gone  abroad,  attempted  to  re-enter 
the  country.35  Unless,  therefore,  the  United  States 
admits  that  the  immigrant  is  a  citizen,  the  decision  of 
the  immigration  officers  as  to  that  fact  and  as  to  their 
jurisdiction  is  final.36  As  this  act,  moreover,  applies 
only  when  the  decision  is  adverse  to  the  right  of  the 
alien  to  land,  if  the  decision  be  favorable,  the  Federal 
authorities  can  still  question  his  right,  as  for  example 
under  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Acts.37 

Act  of  1903. 

During  the  ten  years  after  the  passage  of  the  Act  of 
1893  there  was  much  agitation  for  further  regulation  of 
immigration.  Bills  adding  illiterates  to  the  excluded 
classes  passed  one  or  the  other  house  of  Congress  seven 
times  in  this  period;  and  in  1896,  such  an  act  passed 
both  houses  at  the  same  time,  only  to  be  met  by  a  Presi- 
dential veto.  The  history  of  these  measures  will  be 
given  hereafter  in  considering  the  illiteracy  test.38  It 
was  felt  by  every  one  familiar  with  the  subject  that 
the  Act  of  1893  left  many  loopholes  for  the  admission  of 
undesirables,  and  that,  pending  radical  action  by  Con- 
gress, the  machinery  of  exclusion  needed  repairing  and 
strengthening.  Some  of  these  defects  were  enumerated 

34  Act  of  Aug.   18,  1894,  c.  301,  28  Stat.  390. 

35  Lem  Moon  Sing  v.  United  States,  158  U.  S.  538  (1895). 

30  United  States  v.  Ju  Toy,  198  U.  S.  253  (1905),  overruling 
Re  Tom  Yum,  64  Fed.  Rep.,  485  (1894). 

37  Li  Sing  v.  United  States,  180  U.  S.  490  (1901). 

38  Chapter  xii.,  c. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    217 

in  the  report  of  an  Immigration  Investigating  Commission 
in  i895.39  Further  amendments  were  suggested  by 
witnesses  testifying  before  the  Industrial  Commission  in 
1901. 40  In  1902,  a  general  meeting  of  the  commissioners 
of  immigration  at  the  various  ports  was  held  to  obtain 
an  expression  of  opinion  as  to  the  changes  most  needed. 
Finally,  a  bill,  prepared  by  the  law  officers  of  the  Treas- 
ury Department,  aided  by  the  Immigration  Bureau,  the 
experts  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  and  by  several 
other  persons,  was  passed  and  approved  March  3,  1903. 
On  July  i,  1903,  the  Immigration  Bureau,  which  had,  until 
that  time,  been  attached  to  the  Treasury  Department,  was 
attached  to  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor.41 

The  full  text  of  the  Act  of  1903  is  given  hereafter/13 
but  its  most  important  provisions  are  as  follows: 

Scope  of  the  Act.  It  is  first  to  be  noted  that,  whereas 
previous  acts  have  contained  the  terms  "  immigrants  " 
and  "  alien  immigrants,"  the  present  act  applies  to 
"aliens."  The  difference  between  aliens  and  alien  im- 
migrants was  always  a  troublesome  one,  and  was  sup- 
posed in  a  general  way  to  correspond  with  the  distinction 
between  cabin  and  steerage  passengers.  In  the  earlier 
days,  the  practical  distinction  corresponded  fairly  well 
with  the  classification ;  but  for  a  number  of  years  the  plan 
of  not  examining  cabin  passengers  had  been  found  to 
work  badly  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  inadmissible  per- 
sons had  travelled  in  the  cabin  to  escape  inspection.  The 
Commissioner-General  had,  at  various  times,  urged42 

39  Report   of  the  Immigration  Investigating  Commission,  pp. 
40-50. 

40  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  cv-cxvi. 

41  Act  of  Feb.   14,  1903. 
41a  Appendix    III. 

42  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration, 
PP-  13.  36. 


2i8  Immigration  Legislation 

that  alien  cabin  passengers  should  be  examined,  classi- 
fied, etc.,  in  the  same  way  as  the  steerage;  and  while,  in 
practice,  under  the  present  law,  the  method  of  inspection 
is  different  for  the  two  classes,  the  scope  of  the  law  in- 
cludes all  aliens.  There  is  no  practical  difficulty  about  the 
inspection  of  cabin  passengers,  because  no  form  is  fixed 
for  the  examination,  and  inspectors  can  exercise  a  tactful 
discretion  in  regard  to  how  many  of  the  questions  on 
the  manifests  shall  be  asked.43  The  territorial  scope  of 
the  act  covers  the  United  States  and  any  waters,  terri- 
tory, or  other  place  subject  to  its  jurisdiction  on 
March  3,  IQO3.44  This  includes,  therefore,  Porto  Rico, 
Hawaii,  and  the  Philippines.  In  1904,  the  arrivals  at  in- 
sular ports  amounted  to  10,742.  Immigrants  to  the 
United  States  from  Porto  Rico,  Hawaii  and  the  Philip- 
pines (except  Chinese)  are  not  subject  to  the  immigra- 
tion laws  and  are  not  enumerated.45 

Head  tax.™  The  head  money  is  fixed  at  two  dollars, 
and  is  to  be  paid  for  every  passenger  not  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States,  Canada,  Cuba,  Newfoundland,46*  or 
Mexico,  whether  coming  by  land  or  by  water.  Like 
previous  taxes,  this  is  a  lien  upon  vessels  bringing  aliens 
and  is  a  debt  against  the  owners.  The  tax  does  not  apply 
to  aliens  in  transit47  through  the  United  States,  nor  to 
aliens  who  have  paid  a  tax  and  later  go  from  one  part  of 
the  United  States  to  another  through  foreign  contiguous 
territory.  In  the  case  of  aliens  arriving  overland,  special 

43  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1902, 
p.   17- 

44  Section  33. 

45  Dept.  Circular,  No.  43.     As  to  the  Philippines,  see  Act  of 
March  18,  1904,  c.  716,  33  Stat.  139,  and  Act  of  Feb.  6,  1905,  c. 
453,  §6,  33  Stat.  692. 

46  Section  i. 

46aAct  of  March  22,  1904,  33  Stat.  144. 

47  As  to  these,  see  Department  Circular,  Aug.  26,  1903,  Rule  4. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    219 

arrangements  for  the  payment  may  be  made  so  as  to 
facilitate  travel.  In  practice  the  head-tax  is  paid  by  the 
steamship  and  transportation  companies  and  added  to  the 
passage  money  charged  the  immigrant.  The  head-tax  for 
passengers  brought  from  foreign  contiguous  territory  is 
collected  from  the  railways,  under  the  terms  of  an  agree- 
ment between  the  Commissioner-General  and  certain 
Canadian  railway  companies,  dated  November  i,  1901. 48 
Excluded  Classes.*9  The  classes  of  persons  excluded 
from  admission  to  the  United  States  are  the  following: 
(i)  Idiots;  (2)  insane  persons;  (3)  epileptics;  (4)  per- 
sons who  have  been  insane  within  five  years  previous 
to  arrival;  (5)  persons  who  have  had  two  or  more  at- 
tacks of  insanity  at  any  time  previous ;  (6)  paupers ;  (7) 
persons  likely  to  become  a  public  charge ;  (8)  profes- 
sional beggars;  (9)  persons  afflicted  with  a  loathsome 
or  with  a  dangerous  contagious  disease;  (10)  persons 
who  have  been  convicted  of  a  felony  or  other  crime  or 
misdemeanor  involving  moral  turpitude,  not  including 
those  convicted  of  purely  political  offences ;  ( 1 1 )  polyga- 
mists;  (12)  anarchists,  or  persons  who  believe  in  or 
advocate  the  overthrow  by  force  or  violence  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  or  of  all  government  or 
of  all  forms  of  law,  or  the  assassination  of  public 
officials;50  (13)  prostitutes;  (14)  persons  who  procure 
or  attempt  to  bring  in  prostitutes  or  women  for  the 
purpose  of  prostitution;  (15)  those  who  have  been, 
within  one  year  from  the  date  of  application  for  admis- 
sion to  the  United  States,  deported  as  being  under  offers, 

48  Department  Circular  of  Aug.  26,  1903,  Rule  2.  For  the  agree- 
ment mentioned  in  the  text,  see  Report  of  Commissioner-General, 
1902,  pp.  46-48.     This  agreement  was  dated  Nov.  I,  1901.     There 
were  also  prior  agreements  dated   Sept.   7,    1893,  and   Mar.  26, 
1896. 

49  Section  2.  80  Compare  Section  38. 


22O  Immigration  Legislation 

solicitations,  promises  or  agreements  to  perform  labor 
or  service  of  some  kind  therein ;  ( 16)  any  person  whose 
ticket  or  passage  is  paid  for  with  the  money  of  another, 
or  who  is  assisted  by  others  to  come,  unless  it  is  affirma- 
tively and  satisfactorily  shown  that  such  person  does 
not  belong  to  one  of  the  foregoing  excluded  classes ;  but 
any  person  in  the  United  States  may  send  for  a  relative 
or  friend  without  thereby  putting  the  burden  of  this 
proof  upon  the  immigrant.51 

Through  an  oversight  in  drafting  this  act,  which  was 
intended  to  be  a  complete  codification  of  existing  law, 
no  mention  was  made  of  contract  laborers  among  the 
excluded  classes.  But,  although  the  act52  repeals  all 
others  and  parts  of  others  inconsistent  with  it,  it  has 
been  held  that  contract  laborers  are  still  excluded  under 
the  previous  Acts  of  1885  and  1888.  That  this  is  a 
proper  construction  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  present 
law  contains  numerous  provisions  in  regard  to  contract 
laborers.  In  fact  this  very  section  (36)  re-enacts  the 
exemptions  from  the  contract  labor  acts,  viz. :  skilled 
laborers,  if  others  of  like  kind  unemployed  cannot  be 
found  in  this  country,  professional  actors,  artists,  lec- 
turers, singers,  ministers  of  any  religious  denomination, 
professors  for  colleges  or  seminaries,  persons  belonging 
to  any  recognized  learned  profession,  and  persons  em- 
ployed strictly  as  personal  and  domestic  servants. 

Criminal  Offences  against  the  Immigration  Acts.  For 
the  purpose  of  effectually  excluding  the  classes  men- 
tioned in  the  act  as  to  be  excluded,  certain  things  have 
been  made  crimes  against  the  United  States.  These  are : 

51  It  will  be  noted  that  the  additions  to  the  classes  excluded 
under  earlier  acts    are:    epileptics,    persons    previously    insane, 
beggars,   anarchists,  procurers,  and  contract  laborers  who  have 
been  deported  within  a  year  previous  to  arrival, 

52  Section  36. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    221 

(i)  Importing,  holding  or  attempting  to  hold  any 
woman  or  girl  for  immoral  purposes;53  (2)  prepaying 
the  transportation  or  encouraging  the  migration  of 
aliens  under  any  offer,  solicitation,  promise  or  agree- 
ment, parol  or  special,  expressed  or  implied,  made 
previous  to  the  importation  of  aliens,  to  perform  labor 
in  the  United  States;54  (3)  encouraging  the  migration 
of  aliens  by  promise  of  employment  through  advertise- 
ments in  foreign  countries ; 55  (4)  encouraging  immi- 
gration on  the  part  of  owners  of  vessels  and 
transportation  companies  by  any  means  other  than 
communications  giving  the  sailings  of  vessels  and  terms 
of  transportation;56  (5)  bringing  in  or  attempting  to 
b,ring  in  any  alien  not  duly  admitted  by  an  immigrant 
inspector  or  not  lawfully  entitled  to  enter  the  United 
States ; 57  (6)  bringing  in  by  any  person  other  than 
railway  lines  of  any  alien  afflicted  with  a  loathsome  or 
with  a  dangerous  contagious  disease;58  (7)  allowing  an 
alien  to  land  from  a  vessel  at  any  other  time  and  place 

63  Section  3. 

54  Sections  4  and  5.    This  conflicts  with  Section  2  in  so  far  as 
it  contains  no  exception  as  to  skilled  labor. 

55  Section  6.  56  Section  7.  5T  Section  8. 
58  Section  9.     This  last  provision,  in  reference  to  bringing  in 

diseased  aliens,  is  of  the  greatest  importance,  as  it  is  provided 
that,  if  the  disease  could  have  been  detected  at  the  time  of  em- 
barkation, the  person  or  company  bringing  in  the  alien  is  liable 
to  a  fine  of  $100,  and  no  vessel  is  allowed  to  clear  until  such  fine 
is  paid.  The  purpose  of  the  section  is  not  merely  to  preclude 
the  bringing  in  of  diseased  aliens;  but  to  prevent  the  spread  of 
disease  during  the  voyage  to  those  previously  healthy.  Such 
persons  might  not  develop  symptoms  until  after  passing  the  in- 
spection, and  they  would  thus  render  the  inspection  nugatory  as 
a  means  of  preventing  the  disease  in  this  country.  The  efficacy 
of  this  provision  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  during  the  year  1904, 
fines  amounting  to  $28,400  were  imposed,  of  which  all  but  $2500 
was  at  the  port  of  New  York.  See  Report  of  the  Commissioner- 
General  of  Immigration,  1904,  p.  41. 


222  Immigration  Legislation 

than  that  designated  by  the  immigration  officer;59  (8) 
refusing  or  neglecting  to  return  rejected  aliens  to  the 
port  from  which  they  came  or  to  pay  their  maintenance 
while  on  land ; 60  (9)  refusing  or  neglecting  to  receive 
and  return  aliens  arrested  within  three  years  after  entry 
as  being  unlawfully  in  the  United  States;61  (10)  know- 
ingly or  wilfully  giving  false  testimony  or  swearing  to 
any  false  statement  affecting  the  right  of  an  alien  to 
land  is  made  perjury;62  (u)  assisting  any  anarchist  to 
enter  the  United  States,  or  conspiring  to  allow,  procure, 
or  permit  any  such  person  to  enter;63  (12)  failing  to 
deliver  manifests  as  provided  in  sections  12,  13  and  I4.64 
Rejection  of  Diseased  Aliens.  It  is  provided  that  the 
decision  of  a  Board  of  Special  Inquiry,  made  upon  the 
certificate  of  the  medical  officer,  shall  be  final  as  to  the 
rejection  of  aliens  with  loathsome  or  dangerous  con- 
tagious diseases,  or  with  any  mental  or  physical  disability 
which  would  bring  them  within  one  of  the  excluded 
classes.65  This  is  construed  to  mean  that  the  alien  must 
be  afflicted  with  a  dangerous  or  a  loathsome  contagious 
disease,  or  be  an  idiot  or  an  epileptic,  etc.  In  such 
cases  there  is  no  appeal,  and  section  25,  providing  for 
an  appeal  in  certain  cases,  is  considered  as  modified 
by  section  10.  Section  10  is  also  open  to  the  construc- 
tion that  wherever  a  medical  officer  certifies  to  a  mental 
or  physical  defect  which  would  make  an  immigrant 
likely  to  become  a  public  charge,  he  should  be  excluded 
without  appeal.  But  this  construction  has  not  been 
adopted  and  the  certificate  of  the  medical  officer  is 
treated  merely  as  a  piece  of  evidence  bearing  upon  the 
likelihood  of  the  alien  becoming  a  public  charge,  and 

69  Section  18.  60  Section  19.  61  Section  21. 

62  Section  24.     Cf.  U.  S.  Rev.  Stats.  §  5392. 
«3  Section  38.  64  Section   15.  65  Section  10. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    223 

is  generally  neutralized,  as  explained  elsewhere,  by  the 
promise  of  somebody  to  look  after  him.66  It  is  said 
that  there  is  often  a  determined  effort  made  through 
political  influence  to  secure  the  admission  of  a  diseased 
alien  having  friends  here,  though  some  Congressmen 
have  very  properly  declined  to  interest  themselves  in 
immigration  cases. 

It  is  further  provided  that  where  a  rejected  alien  is 
helpless,  from  sickness  or  infancy,  and  needs  the  protec- 
tion of  another  alien  coming  with  him,  both  shall  be 
returned,  in  the  same  manner  as  is  usually  done  in  the 
case  of  other  rejected  persons.67  Where  a  contract 
laborer,  suffering  from  a  loathsome  or  dangerous  con- 
tagious disease  other  than  one  of  a  quarantinable  nature, 
is  held  as  a  witness  in  a  prosecution  for  violation  of 
the  contract  labor  law,  he  is  not  to  be  permitted  to  land 
for  medical  treatment.68  Whenever  an  alien  has  taken 
out  his  first  naturalization  papers  and  sends  for  his  wife 
or  minor  children,  if  any  of  these  persons  contract  a 
contagious  disease  during  the  voyage,  they  are  to  be 
held  and  not  to  be  deported  if  they  can  be  cured  or 
rendered  harmless  to  other  persons.69 

Manifests.  Masters  of  vessels  are  required  to  deliver 
to  the  immigration  officers,  on  arrival,  manifests  pre- 
pared at  the  time  of  embarkation,  giving  the  following 
facts  in  regard  to  aliens  on  board :  ( i )  Full  name,  age, 
and  sex;  (2)  whether  married  or  single;  (3)  occupa- 
tion; (4)  whether  able  to  read  or  write;  (5)  nationality; 
(6)  race;  (7)  last  residence;  (8)  port  of  landing  in  the 
United  States;  (9)  final  destination;  (10)  whether  hav- 

66  A  letter  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  Apr. 
*7>  iQOS.  instructs  all  officers  to  give  great  weight  to  certificates 
of  "poor  physique." 

67  Section  1 1.  68  Section  19.  ot>  Section  37. 


224  Immigration  Legislation 

ing  a  ticket  to  such  destination ;  ( 1 1 )  by  whom  passage 
paid;  (12)  whether  in  possession  of  $50,  and  if  less, 
how  much;  (13)  whether  going  to  join  a  relative  or 
friend,  and  if  so,  the  name  and  address ;  ( 14)  whether 
in  the  United  States  before  and  if  so,  when  and  where ; 
(15)  whether  ever  a  dependent  or  delinquent;  (16) 
whether  a  polygamist;  (17)  whether  an  anarchist;  (18) 
whether  a  contract  laborer;  (19)  what  is  the  alien's 
condition  of  health  and  if  deformed  or  crippled,  and  if 
so,  for  how  long  and  from  what  cause.70  These  mani- 
fests are  made  up  chiefly  from  the  answers  given  by  the 
immigrants  to  the  ship's  officers.  Many  of  the  questions 
seem  very  absurd ;  for,  of  course,  no  one  is  likely  to  admit 
that  he  belongs  to  any  of  the  excluded  classes.  There  is  a 
popular  impression  in  this  country  that  immigrants  are 
required  to  be  in  possession  of  a  certain  amount  of 
money;  but  this  is  an  error.  Under  the  Act  of  1893  the 
manifest  was  required  to  state  whether  the  alien  had 
$30  or  less.  This,  like  the  provision  of  the  present  act 
regarding  the  possession  of  $50,  was  simply  for  statistical 
purposes,  and  had  no  bearing  upon  the  alien's  chances  of 
admission,  further  than  as  it  might  show  him  liable  to 
become  a  public  charge.  In  considering  the  latter 
question,  however,  attention  is  paid  only  to  the  money 
actually  produced  by  the  immigrant;  and  hence  it  may 
fairly  be  said  that  the  question  on  the  manifest  is  purely 
for  statistical  purposes.  Frequently,  immigrants  are 
thoroughly  coached  as  to  what  answers  they  shall  give  to 
the  questions  before  leaving  the  port  of  embarkation ; 
and  in  other  cases  they  are  coached  during  the  voyage. 
On  inspection,  therefore,  the  answers,  in  many  instances, 
do  not  agree  with  the  information  on  the  manifest.  In 
respect  to  the  amount  of  money  the  change  may  be  a 
truthful  one,  for,  through  the  purchase  and  sale  of 
70  Section  12. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    225 

baggage,  gambling  and  in  other  ways,  the  sum  which 
an  immigrant  has  when  he  arrives  is  frequently  quite 
different  from  that  with  which  he  started. 

Manifests  are  to  contain  not  more  than  thirty  names 
each.  Each  alien  or  head  of  a  family  is  to  be  given  a 
ticket  with  his  name  on  it  for  convenience  in  identify- 
ing him  for  inspection,  a  number  or  letter  designating 
the  manifest.  Each  manifest  is  to  be  verified  by  the 
signature  of  the  ship's  officer,  and  his  oath  must  be  taken 
before  an  immigration  officer,  on  arrival,  to  the  effect 
that  the  surgeon  on  the  vessel  has  made  an  examination, 
and,  that,  from  the  report  of  the  surgeon  and  his  own 
investigation  he  believes  that  none  of  the  aliens  are  of 
the  excluded  classes,  and  that  the  information  on  the 
manifests  is  true.71  This  provision  accomplishes  little 
except,  in  some  instances,  the  encouragement  of  per- 
jury. The  ship's  officer  in  most  cases  knows  nothing 
about  the  immigrants.  He  can  perfectly  well  make  oath 
that  the  information  is  true  to  the  best  of  his  knowledge 
and  belief,  and,  in  cases  where  he  does  know,  there  is 
usually  no  means  of  proving  whether  he  knows  or  not. 

The  ship's  surgeon  is  also  to  sign  and  make  oath  be- 
fore an  immigration  officer  at  the  port  of  arrival,  stating 
that  the  manifests  are  true  in  all  particulars  as  to  the 
mental  and  physical  condition  of  the  aliens.  This  re- 
quirement has  more  sense  than  the  last,  but,  as  shown  by 
the  amount  of  fines  collected  under  section  9  of  the 
act.  in  many  cases  it  is  of  no  value.72 

There  is  also  a  penalty  for  failure  to  deliver  manifests 
of  all  aliens  on  board  of  a  vessel.73  Although  in  terms 
this  section  would  seem  to  cover  the  case  where  all 
the  information  required  is  not  given,  it  has  practically 
been  construed  otherwise  and  many  manifests  contain 
71  Section  13.  72  Section  14.  73  Section  15. 


226  Immigration  Legislation 

numerous  blanks.  The  law  should  be  made  more  definite 
in  this  particular. 

Examination  of  Immigrants.  Upon  the  arrival  of  a 
vessel,  immigration  officers  are  required  to  proceed  on 
board  to  inspect  the  aliens;  or  they  may  order  their 
temporary  removal  to  a  proper  place  for  inspection. 
This  removal  is  not  to  be  considered  a  landing  or  to  re- 
lieve the  transportation  companies  of  any  obligation  in 
regard  to  detaining  the  aliens.74  In  practice,  at  most 
ports,  the  first  and  second  cabin  passengers  are  examined 
on  the  ship,  in  order  to  prevent  delay  and  hardship,  the 
majority  of  them  being  either  American  citizens  or  foreign 
officials  or  tourists.  The  steerage  passengers  are  removed 
in  barges  to  the  immigrant  station  on  an  island  or  on 
the  mainland,  and  are  inspected  there.  The  physical  and 
mental  examination  is  by  officers  of  the  Marine  Hospital 
Service,  or  other  surgeons  who  may  be  designated  for 
the  purpose.75  The  Commissioner-General,  with  the 
approval  of  the  Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  is 
given  power  to  prescribe  rules  for  the  entry  and  inspec- 
tion of  aliens  along  the  Canadian  and  Mexican  borders, 
so  as  not  to  impede  travel  more  than  is  necessary;  and 
he  may  make  contracts  with  the  transportation  com- 
panies for  the  same  purpose.76 

Detention  and  Return  of  Aliens.  The  owners,  offi- 
cers, and  agents  of  any  vessel  bringing  aliens  are 
required  to  prevent  their  landing  except  when  desig- 
nated by  the  immigration  officers.  Failure  to  take  due 
precautions  to  prevent  escape  is  made  a  misdemeanor  to 
which  a  heavy  penalty  is  attached.  Any  alien  landing 
at  another  time  and  place  than  that  designated  by  the 
immigration  officers  is  to  be  deemed  unlawfully  in  the 

74  Section  16.  75  Section  17. 

76  Section  32. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    227 

United  States  and  to  be  deported.76  All  persons  brought 
in  violation  of  law  are  to  be  returned  immediately  to  the 
countries  whence  they  came,  and,  if  practicable,  on  the 
vessels  bringing  them.  The  cost  of  maintenance  while 
in  detention,  and  the  expense  of  return,  is  to  be  borne 
by  the  owners  of  the  vessels,  and  neglect  or  refusal  to 
pay  the  cost  of  maintenance  or  to  detain  and  return  re- 
jected aliens  to  the  port  from  which  they  came  is  a 
misdemeanor  punishable  by  fine;  and  no  vessel  is  to  be 
entitled  to  clearance  from  any  port  while  such  a  fine  is 
unpaid.  Under  this  section,  it  is  to  be  observed,  the 
owner  of  the  vessel  is  made  an  absolute  insurer  of  the 
detained  person  pending  his  return ; 77  while  failure 
to  adopt  due  precautions  to  prevent  landing,  mentioned 
in  section  18,  must  be  shown  to  be  wilful  or  negligent.78 
It  has  been  suggested  that  section  18  should  be  amended 
so  as  to  make  the  duty  of  the  owner  of  the  vessel 
absolute.79 

The  deportation  of  any  contract  laborer  may  be  sus- 
pended by  the  immigration  authorities  if  his  testimony 
is  needed  to  prosecute  offenders  under  sections  4  and 
5  of  the  act,  and  in  such  a  case  the  cost  of  his  main- 
tenance during  the  suspension  of  deportation  is  to  be 
paid  by  the  government.80 

Any  alien  coming  in  violation  of  the  law,  and  also 
any  alien  found  a  public  charge  in  the  United  States 
from  causes  existing  before  landing,  is  to  be  deported 
to  the  country  whence  he  came,  at  any  time  within  two 

76  Section  18. 

77  United  States  v.  Warren,  58  Fed.  Rep.  559. 

78  United  States  v.  Spruth,  71  Fed.  Rep.  678. 

79  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1904, 
p.  103. 

80  Section  19. 


228  Immigration  Legislation 

years  after  his  arrival.  The  expense,  including  one-half 
the  cost  of  inland  transportation  to  the  port  of  de- 
portation, is  to  be  borne  by  the  person  who  brought  him 
in,  or  if  this  cannot  be  effected,  at  the  expense  of  the 
government.81  This,  it  will  be  observed,  extends  the 
period  of  deportation  of  public  charges  to  two  years. 
The  original  draft  of  the  act  made  the  period  three  years, 
and  numerous  public  authorities  have  desired  that  the 
period  should  be  made  even  longer,  say  five  years.82 
It  has  also  been  suggested  that  every  case  of  a  public 
charge,  which  the  surgeon  fails  to  certify  to  be  due  to 
disease  or  physical  disability,  should  be  taken  before  a 
board  of  special  inquiry  to  determine  whether  he  was 
a  person  liable  to  become  a  public  charge  at  the  time 
he  landed. 

The  provision  that  deportation  can  take  place  only 
where  pauperism  results  from  causes  arising  before 
landing  is  an  unfortunate  one.  In  many  cases  it  is 
difficult  to  show  that  this  is  true;  although,  considering 
the  number  of  immigrants  landing  with  poor  physique, 
one  may  be  morally  certain  that  many  are  destined  to 
become  public  charges  shortly  after  arrival.  It  would 
be  much  better  to  provide  that  all  immigrants  should 
pass  through  a  probationary  period  of  five  years,  and  if 
at  any  time  during  that  period  they  fall  into  classes  that 

81  Section  20. 

82  "  Only  those  cases  are  now  held  to  come  within  this  section 
in  which  some  physical  disability  is  certified  by  the  surgeons  to 
be  the  cause  of  the  alien  becoming  a  public  charge.     I  do  not 
find  this  limitation  in  the  law,  which  I  believe  to  be  susceptible 
of  a  much  broader  interpretation.    It  seems  to  me  that  under  it 
all  aliens  who  were  in  fact  at  the  time  of  admission  paupers  or 
persons  likely  to  become  public  charges,  though  this  fact  may  not 
have  been  detected  at  rhe  time  of  inspection,  should  be  deported." 
Report  of  Commissioner  at  New  York,  1904. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    229 

would  be  excluded  if  applying  for  admission,  they  should 
be  deported.83  Some  question  has  been  made  of  the 
constitutionality  of  such  a  provision;  but  in  view  of 
the  decision  in  the  Turner  case  it  is  believed  that  there 
is  no  constitutional  prohibition  against  deporting  any 
alien  who  may  be  found  objectionable.84  Such  a  plan, 
if  adopted,  should  be  limited  by  a  discretionary  authority 
vested  in  some  board  or  officer;  for  the  reason  that 
certain  causes,  arising  subsequent  to  landing,  such  as 
explosions  or  accidents  of  various  kinds,  for  which  the 
immigrants  might  not  be  at  all  responsible,  might  de- 
prive them  of  the  power  of  self-support,  or  compel  them 
to  apply  for  medical  relief.  It  is  believed,  however,  that 
these  cases  would  be  few  in  comparison  with  the  number 
who  could  rightfully  be  returned  to  foreign  countries. 
If  the  Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor  is  satisfied 
that  an  alien  is  in  the  United  States  in  violation  of  the 
act  he  may,  within  three  years  after  his  entry,  order 
him  to  be  arrested  and  deported,  as  provided  in  the  last 
paragraph;  and  the  neglect  or  refusal  of  the  master  of 
the  vessel  to  take  such  a  person  on  board  and  return 
him  whence  he  came  renders  him  subject  to  the  penalties 
provided  in  section  19  as  to  deportation  of  aliens  rejected 
on  examination.85  But  it  has  recently  been  ruled  by  the 
Circuit  Court  in  New  York  that  a  decision  of  a  board 
of  special  inquiry  admitting  an  alien  is  res  adjudicata, 
and  that  such  a  person  cannot  be  arrested  and  deported, 
no  matter  how  conclusively  it  appears  that  the  board 
was  deceived.86  If  this  decision  is  sustained  upon  appeal 

83  Cp.   Report  of  Commissioner  at  New  York,   1904.     Report 
of  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1901,  p.  37. 

84  United  States  v.  Turner,  194  U.  S.  279  (1903). 

85  Section  21. 

80  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1904, 
p.    40. 


230  Immigration  Legislation 

it  will  practically  render  this  section  useless  as  a  remedy 
for  cases  of  fraud. 

The  deportation  of  aliens  arrested  as  illegally  in  the 
United  States,  under  section  21  of  the  act,  is  to  be  to 
the  trans-Atlantic  or  trans-Pacific  ports  from  which  they 
originally  embarked.  This  is  to  be  so  even  if  they  came 
into  the  United  States  from  contiguous  territory.87  The 
object  of  the  provision  is  chiefly  to  insure  the  return 
to  Europe  and  Asia  of  persons  coming  in  from  Canada 
or  Mexico.  Formerly  such  aliens  were  taken  to  the  bor- 
der, and  although  in  some  cases  the  railroads  took  them 
to  the  ports  of  arrival  in  Canada  and  Mexico,  yet,  strictly, 
neither  the  transportation  companies  nor  the  govern- 
ments of  those  countries  had  any  authority  over  them, 
and  they  could  demand  their  liberty  and  come  in  again 
over  the  border  at  any  unguarded  point.  Thus,  the  in- 
spection on  our  seaboard  was  rendered  practically  futile, 
for  those  rejected  or  likely  to  be  rejected  simply  shipped 
for  foreign  contiguous  territory  and  then  came  in  over 
the  border.  Under  the  present  arrangement  such  per- 
sons, if  caught  after  coming  in  through  Canada,  are  re- 
turned by  New  York. 

Bonds  and  Guaranties.  No  bond  or  guaranty,  written 
or  oral,  that  an  alien  shall  not  become  a  public  charge 
is  to  be  received  from  any  person,  company,  corpora- 
tion, charitable  or  benevolent  society  or  association, 
unless  authority  to  receive  the  same  shall  in  each  special 
case  be  given  by  the  Commissioner-General,  with  the 
written  approval  of  the  Secretary.88  And  by  a  rule  of 
the  department  no  application  for  the  admission  of  a 
debarred  alien  under  bond  is  to  be  considered  except  in 
cases  in  which  deportation  would  involve  the  separation 
of  immediate  families,  and  in  which  the  expense  of 

87  Section  35.  88  Section  26. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    231 

maintenance,  while  awaiting  the  decision  of  the  matter 
of  the  bond,  is  covered  by  a  deposit.89 

The  wise  purpose  of  the  above  provision  seems  clearly 
to  be  to  limit  bonds  or  guaranties  to  special  and  excep- 
tional cases.  In  practice,  however,  these  provisions  have 
often  been  rendered  nugatory  from  the  custom  of  boards 
of  special  inquiry  in  considering  the  verbal  guaranty  of 
a  friend  or  relative  that  the  alien  shall  not  become  a 
public  charge  as  a  piece  of  evidence  bearing  upon  the 
question  whether  he  is  likely  to  become  a  public  charge. 
The  result  is  that  at  least  three-quarters  of  these  "  L.  P. 
C."  cases  admitted  by  boards,  are  admitted  upon  such 
oral  guaranties,  and  as  no  penalty  attaches  to  the  non- 
*  observance  of  such  promises  they  are  but  little  regarded. 
This  part  of  the  law  is,  therefore,  frustrated  and  a  big 
loophole  created  through  which  the  very  worst  elements 
of  immigration  can  enter.  During  the  administration  of 
Commissioner  Williams  at  New  York  a  rule  was  made 
that  persons  should  be  admitted  on  the  promise  of  sup- 
port only  where  the  promisor  was  legally  liable  for  such 
support.  It  would  be  well  if  such  a  provision  were 
added  to  the  statute. 

D.      INSPECTION  AND  REGISTRATION  OF  IMMIGRANTS  90 

The  systematic  and  uniform  examination  of  aliens  be- 
gan with  the  establishment  of  the  Immigration  Bureau 
in  1891.  Under  the  present  law,  the  Commissioner-Gen- 
eral has  general  supervision  of  the  administration  of  im- 
migration matters.  He  can  detail  officers  to  visit  penal 

89Dept.  Circular,  Aug.  26,  1903,  Rule  20. 

90  Cp.  Dr.  Allan  McLaughlin,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol. 
66,  pp.  357-36i  (Feb.  1905)  ;  Report  of  the  Commission  appointed 
by  the  President  to  investigate  the  Condition  of  the  Immigrant 
Station  at  Ellis  Island  (1904). 


232  Immigration  Legislation 

and  charitable  institutions  and  ascertain  the  number  of 
aliens  therein,  and  he  may  send  officers  abroad  to  study 
conditions  of  immigration.91  The  Commissioner-Gen- 
eral is  under  the  Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  or 
practically,  one  of  the  assistant  Secretaries  of  that  de- 
partment. The  Secretary  appoints  all  immigration  officers 
and  employees  and  fixes  their  compensation. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Bureau  has  now  been  in 
existence  fifteen  years,  the  inspection  of  immigrants  varies 
somewhat  at  the  different  ports,  according  to  the  number 
to  be  inspected,  the  importance  of  the  port,  and  the  physi- 
cal accommodations  for  such  service.  Inasmuch  as  three- 
fourths  of  all  aliens  pass  through  the  port  of  New  York, 
a  brief  description  of  the  practical  method  of  inspection 
there  may  be  of  interest. 

When  a  ship  arrives  in  New  York  harbor,  telegraphic 
notice  of  its  entrance  is  sent  ahead,  and  the  vessel  is 
boarded  by  the  State  quarantine  inspectors,  and  by  the 
immigration  inspectors  and  surgeons.  The  State  au- 
thorities examine  first  for  diseases  which  would  subject 
the  vessel  to  quarantine,  and  the  immigration  inspectors 
and  Marine  Hospital  officers  examine  all  the  first  and 
second  cabin  passengers.  The  examination  of  cabin  pas- 
sengers is  a  comparatively  recent  thing  and  was  necessi- 
tated by  the  fact  that  many  inadmissible  aliens  undertook 
to  travel  in  the  second  cabin  to  avoid  inspection.  In  the 
examination  of  passengers,  inspectors  can  use  their  dis- 
cretion as  to  asking  any  or  all  of  the  questions  on  the 
manifests,  and  can  avoid  absurd  and  unnecessary  inquir- 
ies. Upon  the  completion  of  the  cabin  inspection,  the 
ship's  surgeon  reports  any  persons  in  the  ship's  hospital. 
If  advisable,  these  are  presently  transferred  to  the  immi- 
grant hospital. 

91  Act  of  March  3,  1903,  Section  22. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    233 

The  steerage  passengers  and  any  other  aliens  held  by 
the  inspectors  are  then  taken  with  their  baggage  upon 
barges  and  carried  to  Ellis  Island.  They  enter  a  large 
general  room  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  building  by 
iron  gratings.  The  main  hall,  which  is  on  the  second 
floor,  is  also  divided  lengthwise  by  gratings  into  a  series 
of  parallel  passageways.  Before  reaching  these,  how- 
ever, immigrants  have  to  pass  in  single  file  before  two 
surgeons  of  the  Marine  Hospital  Service,  stationed  a 
little  distance  apart,  who  divide  the  inspection  between 
them,  one  examining  general  physique,  and  the  other  for 
trachoma.  Any  doubtful  individuals  are  held  for  a  more 
thorough  physical  examination,  and  idiots,  insane,  and 
diseased  persons  are  certified  as  such.  Minor  defects  are 
noted  on  the  immigrant's  card  mentioned  below,  which 
he  has  already  received  on  the  ship,  and  he  is  passed 
along  for  general  inspection. 

The  women  are  examined  individually  by  a  matron  or 
her  assistants,  whose  business  it  is  to  ascertain  whether  or 
not  they  are  pregnant,  as  this  increases  the  probability  of 
their  becoming  public  charges  unless  they  can  produce 
satisfactory  evidence  that  they  will  be  taken  care  of  and 
supported.  Persons  with  loathsome  or  dangerous  con- 
tagious diseases,  epileptics,  idiots,  insane  persons,  and 
those  physically  defective  so  that  they  are  liable  to  become 
public  charges,  and  pregnant  women,  are  at  once  held  for 
examination  before  a  board  of  special  inquiry.  The  re- 
maining immigrants  are  then  segregated  into  columns 
which  pass  down  the  various  passageways  above  re- 
ferred to.  On  the  steamer,  each  immigrant  is  given  a 
card  with  his  name  and  a  number  or  letter  which  tells  the 
particular  manifest  on  which  his  name  appears ;  and,  in 
marshalling  immigrants  for  examination  by  the  inspec- 
tors, care  is  taken  that  those  appearing  on  the  same 


234  Immigration  Legislation 

manifest  shall  proceed  along  the  same  passageway.  At 
the  end  of  each  passageway  is  a  desk  at  which  sits  an 
immigrant  inspector.  When  the  alien  reaches  the  in- 
spector he  produces  his  card  and  the  officer  finds  his  name 
upon  the  manifest.  The  immigrant  is  then  asked  sub- 
stantially the  same  questions  which  he  has  already  an- 
swered at  the  time  of  the  preparation  of  the  manifest,  and 
any  discrepancies  between  his  answers  and  the  statements 
on  the  manifest  are  noted  on  the  latter  in  red  ink.  The 
immigrant  is  also  required  at  this  time  to  show  the  amount 
of  money  which  he  has  in  his  possession;  and  this  also 
is  noted  on  the  manifest.  In  general,  at  this  primary 
inspection,  which  is  the  only  one  to  which  nine-tenths  of 
all  immigrants  are  ever  subjected,  no  steps  are  taken  to 
ascertain  whether  the  answers  given  are  correct  or  not; 
indeed,  such  verification  is  in  many  cases  impossible. 
Thus,  while  it  would  be  comparatively  easy  to  ascertain 
whether  an  immigrant  could  read  or  write,  it  is  utterly 
impossible  to  ascertain  whether  he  has  been  a  convict; 
whether  he  is  a  polygamist  or  anarchist;  or,  unless  his 
appearance  indicates  it,  whether  he  has  been  insane 
within  five  years  previous.  In  the  main,  if  the  answers 
given  appear  to  be  truthful,  if  the  immigrant  is  of  good 
physical  appearance,  and,  considering  his  ability  to  work, 
and  his  age,  sex  and  occupation,  if  he  has  money  to  sup- 
port him  until  he  can  find  employment,  he  is  immediately 
passed.  If,  however,  the  inspector  has  a  doubt  about  his 
right  to  land,  his  card  is  marked  "  S.  I."  and  he  is  de- 
tained before  a  board  of  special  inquiry  92  and  conducted 
to  another  part  of  the  building.  Those  who  are  not  de- 
tained pass  into  another  room,  where  they  can  have  their 
money  changed  into  United  States  currency,  buy  tickets 
to  their  destination,  and  obtain  information  of  all  sorts 
92  Act  of  March  3,  1903,  section  24. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    235 

in  regard  to  proceeding  on  their  way.  Quite  frequently, 
the  right  of  persons  to  land  is  dependent  upon  the  exist- 
ence and  responsibility  of  some  other  person,  as  a  husband 
or  parent,  whom  the  immigrant  is  to  join.  From  this 
cause,  also,  the  immigrant  may  be  detained ;  and  then  a 
telegram  is  sent  to  the  friend  or  relative  requesting  him 
to  come  and  take  the  new  arrival  away.  Immigrants  also 
have  the  assistance  of  the  representatives  of  the  mission- 
ary and  charitable  societies  of  the  various  races  who  are 
allowed  at  the  Island.  These  societies  provide  work  for 
aliens  after  landing,  assist  in  finding  their  relatives  and 
friends,  and  are  in  many  ways  useful. 

The  immigrants  permitted  to  land,  who  have  obtained 
all  necessary  information,  have  exchanged  their  money, 
and  are  otherwise  ready,  are  taken  on  board  the  ferry 
boat  which  runs  every  hour,  and  landed  at  the  Battery. 
Those  destined  to  points  outside  of  New  York  City  are 
looked  after  until  they  take  their  trains,  in  order  to  pro- 
tect them  from  all  kinds  of  crooks,  sharpers,  agents  of  the 
padroni,  and  boarding-house  keepers. 

The  boards  of  special  inquiry,  above  referred  to,  consist 
of  officials  selected  by  the  Commissioner-General.93  At 
New  York  several  are  usually  in  session  all  the  time. 
They  now  consist  of  three  inspectors,  the  decision  of  two 
of  whom  is  final  as  to  the  immigrant's  right  to  land,  sub- 
ject to  appeal,  first  to  the  commissioner  at  the  port,  then  to 
the  Commissioner-General,  and  finally  to  the  Secretary  of 
Commerce  and  Labor.  Each  board  has  the  assistance  of 
a  stenographer  and  an  interpreter,  although  most  of  the 
primary  inspectors  as  well  as  those  serving  upon  the 
boards  of  special  inquiry  are  familiar  with  a  large  number 
of  languages.  The  sessions  of  the  board  are  private, 
but  the  immigrants  are  sometimes  permitted  to  have  coun- 
83  Act  of  March  3,  1903,  section  25. 


236  Immigration  Legislation 

sel  present.  The  examination  is  usually  conducted  by 
the  president  of  the  board,  and  the  evidence  is  taken  by 
the  stenographer  in  English  and  written  out.  At  the 
hearings  all  the  facts  bearing  upon  the  right  of  the  immi- 
grant to  land  are  considered,  and,  if  an  immigrant  is  to 
join  friends  or  relatives,  they,  also,  are  brought  before 
the  board  and  examined  as  to  their  ability  to  support  the 
new  arrival  and  such  other  facts  as  may  tend  to  establish 
the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  information  on  the  manifest. 
Where  a  number  of  aliens  come  from  one  locality, 
examination  before  the  board  frequently  throws  light  on 
their  history  and  intention.  For  example,  where  a  large 
number  from  one  locality  are  destined  to  the  same  or 
neighboring  localities  in  the  United  States,  there  is  a 
strong  presumption  that  they  are  contract  laborers ;  and, 
while  this  fact  perhaps  could  not  be  established  from  the 
testimony  of  one,  it  may  be  elicited  by  the  examination  of 
a  number.  If  the  decision  of  the  board  is  favorable  to 
the  admission,  the  alien  proceeds  as  those  passed  by  an 
inspector.  If  the  decision  is  adverse  to  his  landing  he  is 
to  be  informed  that  he  has  a  right  of  appeal  from  such 
decision,  and  the  fact  that  he  has  been  so  informed,  is 
entered  on  the  record  of  the  board's  proceedings.  94  If 
no  appeal  is  taken,  the  alien  is  held  in  detention  until  the 
return  of  the  vessel  which  brought  him,  when  he  is  placed 
on  board  and  turned  over  to  the  steamship  authorities,  to 
be  taken  back  to  the  port  of  embarkation.  If  the  decision 
of  the  board  is  adverse  to  his  right  of  landing,  and  an 
appeal  is  taken,  the  immigrant  is  detained  until  the  appeal 
is  finally  decided.  This  appeal,  as  above  stated,  is  first  to 
the  commissioner  of  the  port.  At  the  hearing,  the  immi- 
grant is  produced  before  the  commissioner,  together  with 
the  testimony  taken  before  the  board  of  special  inquiry, 
94  Department  Circular,  Aug.  26,  1903,  Rule  7. 


History  of  Immigration  Legislation    237 

and  he  is  examined  further  by  the  commissioner,  who  sub- 
sequently dictates  a  decision,  to  be  written  out  and  filed 
with  the  papers  in  the  case.  If  an  appeal  is  then  taken 
to  Washington,  the  immigrant  is  remanded  to  the  deten- 
tion pen.  and  the  papers  are  forwarded  to  the  office  of 
the  Commissioner-General. 

Provision  is  made  at  Ellis  Island  for  the  thorough  dis- 
infection of  clothing  and  baggage,  and  for  feeding  and 
caring  for  immigrants  during  their  detention.  The  pres- 
ent buildings  at  Ellis  Island,  erected  two  or  three  years 
ago,  are  already  proving  inadequate  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  enormous  influx  of  the  last  few  years.  In  summer 
time,  spaces  on  the  roof  are  reserved  for  detained  immi- 
grants, so  that  they  may  enjoy  the  advantages  of  out-door 
air  and  sunlight.  The  sleeping  quarters  are  walled  and 
floored  with  concrete,  the  bedsteads  are  of  iron,  allowing 
the  most  thorough  disinfection,  and  the  bedding  is  fre- 
quently sterilized.  In  addition  to  the  main  buildings  and 
power  plant,  there  is  also  a  hospital  at  Ellis  Island,  where 
immigrants  afflicted  with  dangerous  contagious  diseases 
can  be  quarantined,  and  where  those  suffering  from  any 
sort  of  disease  can  be  treated.  In  certain  cases,  where  a 
disease  is  curable,  and  the  immigrant  is  going  to  join  a 
husband  or  parent,  he  is  allowed  to  remain  in  the  hospi- 
tal until  cured.  In  other  cases,  they  are  treated  until  de- 
ported. Detained  immigrants  are  fed  by  the  govern- 
ment at  an  expense  to  the  steamship  companies  of  about 
thirty  cents  a  day  for  each  person.  95 

05  The  average  cost  to  the  steamship  companies  of  detained 
immigrants,  in  proportion  to  the  whole  number  of  immigrants 
carried  by  them,  varies  from  6  cents  to  22  cents.  The  Hamburg- 
American,  Prince  and  Holland-American  Companies  pay  the 
largest  amounts ;  the  Scandinavian  and  White  Star  Companies 
the  smallest.  See  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Im- 
migration, 1904,  p.  102. 


238  Immigration  Legislation 

Alien  seamen  are  not  subject  to  inspection  when  they 
land  with  the  intention  of  reshipping  on  an  outward 
bound  vessel  as  soon  as  possible ;  but  discharged  or  de- 
serting seamen  are  to  be  treated  like  other  aliens.96  Under 
a  ruling  of  the  Attorney-General,  made  in  1903,  Chinese 
seamen  may  be  landed  in  the  United  States  to  be  signed 
to  man  American  vessels.  This  not  only  opens  the  door 
to  violations  of  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Acts,  but  is  a 
violation  of  the  spirit  of  the  contract  labor  laws.  97 

Within  the  past  two  years,  in  addition  to  the  general 
statistical  work  at  the  Island,  necessary  for  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  annual  report  of  the  Commissioner-General 
and  for  the  proper  classification  of  records,  a  card  cat- 
alog has  been  established  giving  the  names  of  all  arriv- 
ing aliens,  the  ship  on  which  they  came,  and  such  other 
information  as  is  needed  for  purposes  of  identification. 
This  is  likely  to  prove  of  great  value,  especially  in  con- 
nection with  the  deportation  of  those  who  have  become 
public  charges  in  institutions.  Formerly  there  was  great 
difficulty  in  looking  up  the  record  of  an  alien  to  ascertain 
whether  the  information  he  gave  as  to  the  time  and  port 
of  his  arrival  and  the  ship  by  which  he  came  was  correct 
or  not. 

96  It  was  no  part  of  the  purpose  of  the  immigration  laws  to  deal 
with  seamen,  and  no  account  was  taken  of  them  until  it  was 
found  that  they  furnished  a  loop-hole  for  the  admission  of  the 
excluded  classes.     See  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of 
Immigration,  1903,  pp.  69,  119;  ibid.  1904,  pp.  77,  103;  Depart- 
ment Circular  of  August  I,  1903. 

97  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1903, 
p.   105. 


CHAPTER  XI 

EFFECT  OF  THE   PRESENT  LAWS  AND  THE 
NEED  OF  FURTHER  RESTRICTION 

A.       NUMBERS   DEBARRED   AND  DEPORTED 

SOME  idea  of  the  efficacy  of  the  inspection  of  immi- 
grants since  the  Act  of  1891  may  be  gathered  from  the 
numbers  debarred  and  deported,  as  shown  in  the  follow- 
ing table : 

1892 2,801  out  of  579,663  or  0.5  per  cent. 

1893 1,630  out  of  440,793  or  0.4  per  cent. 

1894 2,389  out  of  228,020  or  i.o  per  cent. 

1895 2,419  out  of  258,536  or  i.o  per  cent. 

1896 3,037  out  of  343,267  or  0.9  per  cent. 

1897 i  ,880  out  of  230,832  or  0.8  per  cent. 

1898 3J94  out  of  229,299  or  1.4  per  cent. 

1899 4,061  out  of  311,715  or  1.3  per  cent. 

1900 4,602  out  of  448,572  or  1.3  per  cent. 

1901 3,879  out  of  487,918  or  0.8  per  cent. 

1902 5,429  out  of  648,743  or  0.8  per  cent. 

1903 9,3i6  out  of  857,046  or  i.i  per  cent. 

1904 8,773  out  of  812,870  or  i.i  per  cent. 

The  figures  given  for  1904  include  4802  aliens  returned 
within  one  year  after  landing,  and  479  persons  returned 
within  three  years  after  landing,  as  being  unlawfully  in 
the  United  States  under  Section  21  of  the  Act  of  1903 ; 
but  they  do  not  include  6856  persons  debarred  at  ports  on 
the  Canadian  and  Mexican  border.  The  7994  debarred 
in  1904  were  made  up  as  follows : 

Idiots - 16 

Insane   persons 33 

Paupers  or  persons  likely  to  become  public  charges. 4798 
Persons  with    loathsome    or   dangerous    contagious 

diseases 1560 

Convicts 35 

239 


240  Immigration  Legislation 

Anarchist I 

Prostitutes 9 

Procurers 3 

Assisted  Immigrants 38 

Contract  laborers 1501 

During  the  thirteen  years,  1892-1904,  47,768  were  de- 
barred; 4802  were  returned  within  one  year  after  land- 
ing; and  479  within  three  years  after  landing;  making 
a  grand  total  of  53,049  debarred  and  returned  during 
that  period.  Of  this  grand  total,  32,422  were  debarred 
as  paupers  or  persons  likely  to  become  public  charges; 
8,981  as  contract  laborers;  and  5,529  as  diseased  persons. 

According  to  the  theory  of  the  existing  laws,  the  ac- 
tual exclusion  of  aliens,  although  valuable,  is  but  a  small 
part  of  the  total  process  of  rejecting  the  undesirable. 
The  theory  of  the  law  is  that  the  steamship  companies 
will,  through  their  agents  and  for  their  own  protection, 
refuse  to  sell  tickets  to  immigrants  who  will  be  unable 
to  pass  the  test.  Undoubtedly  in  the  past  this  has 
been  the  case  to  a  considerable  extent.  The  fact,  how- 
ever, that  aliens  are  the  most  profitable  cargo  that  can 
be  carried,  and  the  great  desire  of  foreigners  to  come,  to 
a  considerable  extent  invalidate  the  theory  of  the  law. 
It  is  well  known  that  for  many  years  the  steamship  com- 
panies have,  in  the  case  of  doubtful  immigrants,  demanded 
double  passage  money  with  the  object  of  making  a  profit 
on  carrying  the  immigrant  back  in  case  he  is  rejected. 
That  this  has  obtained  to  a  large  extent  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  the  Italian  government  passed  an  Act  giving  an 
alien  a  right  of  action  to  recover  the  money  retained  il- 
legally by  the  steamship  companies  in  this  way.  Un- 
doubtedly, in  some  cases  the  companies  bring  over  unfit 
aliens  inadvertently.  The  method  already  described  by 
which  in  small  interior  towns  tickets  are  sold  by  persons 
acting  as  sub-agents  and  sub  sub-agents  without  the 


Effect  of  the  Present  Laws  241 

knowledge  or  consent  of  the  company,  relieves  them  to  a 
certain  extent  of  moral  blame  in  the  matter.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  companies  are  supposed  to  inspect  aliens 
at  the  port  of  embarkation  and  they  certainly  deserve  no 
great  sympathy  if  they  connive  at  attempts  to  evade  our 
laws. 

B.     DISEASED   IMMIGRANTS 

That  the  steamship  companies  actually  do  connive  at 
evasions  of  the  immigration  laws  is  conclusively  estab- 
lished by  the  fact  that  in  1904  they  were  fined  upwards 
of  $31,000  under  Section  9  of  the  Act  of  1903,  imposing 
a  penalty  of  $100  for  bringing  a  diseased  alien  whose 
malady  might  have  been  detected  by  a  competent  medical 
examination  at  the  port  of  departure;  and  it  is  stated  to 
be  a  more  or  less  frequent  practice  for  steamship  com- 
panies to  demand  from  a  doubtful  case  a  deposit  of  $100 
or  more  to  cover  a  possible  fine  of  this  sort.1  A  circular 
recently  issued  by  one  of  the  great  transportation  cor- 
porations, says  2  that  a  diseased  person  who  claims  to  be 
able  to  prove  American  citizenship  on  arrival  will  be  ac- 
cepted for  passage  if  he  deposits  with  the  Company 
$150  for  each  person  in  the  family,  which  amount 
is  to  be  forfeited  to  the  Company  if  he  is  de- 
ported on  arrival.  The  same  circular  also  thought- 
fully provides  that  "  a  person  or  persons  so  afflicted 
shall  agree  to  be  isolated  from  the  other  passengers  dur- 
ing the  voyage."  An  easy  means  of  reaching  an  Ameri- 
can port  is  thus  pointed  out  to  diseased  aliens  if  they 
are  willing  to  guarantee  the  company  against  loss  and 
to  make  a  false  claim  to  American  citizenship.  In 
view  of  the  great  numbers  of  fraudulent  naturalization 

1  Report  of  the  Surgeon-General,  1904,  p.  199. 

2  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1904, 
p.  41. 


242  Immigration  Legislation 

papers  in  existence  and  the  ease  of  obtaining  them  3  it  is 
obvious  that  it  is  by  no  means  difficult  for  diseased  aliens 
to  evade  the  law  by  this  method.  The  burden  is  upon 
the  United  States  to  show  that  the  disease  could  have 
been  detected  at  the  time  of  embarkation. 

Since  August  21,  1903,  by  an  arrangement  with  the 
Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company,  surgeons  of  the  Marine 
Hospital  Service  stationed  at  Kobe,  Nagasaki  and  Yoko- 
hama in  Japan,  and  Hong  Kong  and  Shanghai  in  China, 
have  been  instructed  to  inspect  aliens  embarking  from 
such  ports  to  the  United  States.  In  nine  months,  out  of 
9538  immigrants  examined  at  Yokohama  629,  and  at 
Nagasaki,  Japan,  655  were  rejected,  all  afflicted  with 
trachoma.4  Surgeons  are  also  detailed  for  service  at 
Naples  and  Palermo  in  Italy ;  Vancouver  and  Victoria  in 
British  Columbia;  Winnipeg  in  Manitoba;  and  Quebec 
and  Montreal  in  Canada. 5  The  law  provides  that  the 
medical  officers  shall  certify  not  only  those  suffering 
from  loathsome  or  dangerous  diseases,  but  those  with  any 
mental  or  physical  disability  which  would  bring  them 
within  the  excluded  classes,  for  example,  make  them 
public  charges.  It  is  also  provided,  though  on  this  the 
law  is  not  free  from  contradiction,  that  the  decision  of 
a  board  of  special  inquiry  based  on  the  medical  certificate 
shall  be  final.  In  view  of  the  evident  intention  of  the 
law  it  is  interesting  to  notice  the  practical  working  of 
these  provisions.  Of  immigrants  certified  to  the  board 
of  special  inquiry  by  the  medical  officers  at  Ellis  Island 
in  October,  1903,  there  were  65  cases  of  dangerous  con- 
tagious diseases  acted  on,  and  of  these  4,  or  6  per  cent., 
were  landed.  Of  379  cases  certified  as  likely  to  become 

8  See  supra,  chapter  ix.,  B. 

4  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,   1904, 
p.  43;  Report  of  the  Surgeon-General,  1904,  p.  195. 

5  Report  of  the  Surgeon-General,  1904,  p.  193  ff. 


Effect  of  the  Present  Laws  243 

public  charges,  349  or  92  per  cent,  were  landed.  Of 
course,  as  to  the  latter  class,  the  certificate  is  merely  one 
piece  of  evidence  for  the  Board ;  but,  considering  the  lax 
method  of  guaranties  at  present  in  vogue,  it  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that  the  medical  certificate  is  not  the  controlling 
factor.6  The  increase  in  certification  marks  to  some  ex- 
tent the  increasing  deterioration  in  the  physique  of  immi- 
grants. The  chief  surgeon  at  Boston,  for  example,  says 
in  his  report  for  1904 :7 

"  Superiority  in  quality  is  no  longer  characteristic  of 
the  immigration  at  this  port,  and  during  the  past  year  the 
inadequacy  of  the  facilities  for  conducting  the  medical 
examination  has  been  emphasized  by  the  increasing  num- 
bers it  has  been  found  necessary  at  the  line  inspection  to 
turn  aside  for  special  examination.  On  a  recent  ship  20 
per  cent,  of  the  total  steerage  passengers  were  thus 
'  turned  off  the  line.'  To  some  extent  this  low  physical 
standard  is  the  outcome  of  the  extension  of  the  business 
of  the  British  lines  into  continental  territory,  but  there 
also  seems  to  be  a  decided  increase  in  the  physically  and 
mentally  defective  from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  as 
well.  With  a  slight  decrease  in  total  immigration  the 
number  of  certificate  cases  for  the  past  year  was  513  as 
compared  with  308  for  the  previous  year." 

This  physical  inferiority  has  recently  become  so  marked 
that  the  Commissioner-General  has  called  the  attention 
of  his  subordinates  to  the  fact  that  aliens  certified  for 
"  poor  physique "  are  particularly  disqualified  for  ad- 
mission. 8 

6  Cp.  as  to  Boston,  Report  of  the  Surgeon-General,  1904,  p.  200. 

7  Report  of  the  Surgeon-General,  1904,  p.  199. 

8  Circular  letter  of  April   17,   1905.    The  definition  of  "  poor 
physique  "  by  the  Department  is  as  follows : 

"  A  certificate  of  this  nature  implies  that  the  alien  concerned 
is  afflicted  with  a  body  but  illy  adapted  not  only  to  the  work 
necessary  to  earn  his  bread,  but  is  also  but  poorly  able  to  with- 
stand the  onslaught  of  disease.  It  means  that  he  is  undersized, 


244  Immigration  Legislation 

The  relation  of  disease  and  poor  physique  to  deporta- 
tion under  the  present  law,  is  shown  to  some  extent  by 
the  numbers  treated  annually  in  the  immigrant  hospitals, 
and  the  proportion  of  these  actually  deported  for  any 
cause.  At  New  York,  in  1901,  2718  persons  were  treated, 
and  280  were  deported.  In  1902,  3874  were  treated  and 
645  deported.  In  1904,  there  were  4916  certified  cases,  of 
whom  1368  were  deported.  During  the  year,  5155  per- 
sons were  admitted  to  the  hospital  at  New  York,  1158 
of  whom  were  Austro-Hungarians,  1475  Italians  and 
1277  Russian  Hebrews. 

The  great  difficulty  in  showing  that  an  alien  becoming 
a  public  charge,  does  so  from  causes  arising  prior  to  land- 
ing appears  from  the  following  facts.  In  1903  about  noo 
applications  for  deportation  were  made  at  New  York ;  yet 
only  about  one-quarter  were  deported.  9  Under  a  special 
contract  between  the  State  of  Massachusetts  and  the 
United  States  the  latter  pays  $5  a  week  for  each  immi- 
grant who  has  become  a  public  charge,  out  of  the  immi- 
grant fund.  In  1904,  there  were  396  aliens  reported  by 
the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Charity  to  the  Com- 

poorly  developed,  with  feeble  heart  action,  arteries  below  the 
standard  size ;  that  he  is  physically  degenerate,  and  as  such,  not 
only  unlikely  to  become  a  desirable  citizen,  but  also  very  likely 
to  transmit  his  undesirable  qualities  to  his  offspring  should  he, 
unfortunately  for  the  country  in  which  he  is  domiciled,  have  any. 

"It  is  deemed  proper  to  add  that  of  all  causes  for  rejection, 
outside  of  those  for  dangerous,  contagious  or  loathsome  disease, 
or  for  mental  disease,  that  of  '  poor  physique '  should  receive  the 
most  weight,  for,  in  admitting  such  aliens,  not  only  do  we  increase 
the  number  of  public  charges  by  their  inability  to  gain  their 
bread  through  their  physical  inaptitude  and  their  low  resistance 
to  disease,  but  we  admit  likewise  progenitors  to  this  country 
whose  offspring  will  reproduce,  often  in  an  exaggerated  degree, 
the  physical  degeneracy  of  their  parents." 

9  Report  of  Ellis  Island  Commission,  1904,  p.  25. 


Effect  of  the  Present  Laws  245 

missioners  of  Immigration  at  Boston.  Of  these,  146  could 
not  be  identified  as  immigrants  within  two  years,  and  of 
the  remaining  250,  only  77  were  deported,  the  balance 
continuing  here  and  being  paid  for  out  of  the  immigrant 
fund.  In  other  words,  of  all  the  aliens  reported  as 
public  charges  within  the  year,  only  19  per  cent,  were 
actually  deported !  10 

It  is  true  that  in  some  cases  aliens  becoming  public 
charges  from  causes  arising  subsequent  to  landing  may 
be  deported  if  they  are  willing  to  go.  "  Any  alien  who 
has  been  lawfully  landed,  but  who  has  become  a  public 
charge  from  subsequently-arising  physical  inability  to 
earn  a  living,  which  is  likely  to  be  of  a  permanent  nature, 
may,  with  the  approval  of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration,  be 
deported  within  one  year  from  date  of  landing,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  immigrant  fund,  provided  that  such  alien  is 
delivered  to  the  immigration  officers  at  a  designated  port 
free  of  charge."  ll  The  number  of  these  cases  is,  how- 
ever, not  large,  and  this  provision  does  not  help  the  situ- 
ation materially.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  local 
boards  and  authorities  are  partly  to  blame  in  not  attempt- 
ing to  secure  more  general  deportation,  as  the  matter  has 
been  repeatedly  called  to  their  attention.12 

C.     SOLICITATION    BY    TRANSPORTATION    COMPANIES  13 

Abundant  evidence  is  forthcoming  that  the  provision 
of  the  present  law,  prohibiting  the  solicitation  of  immi- 
grants by  transportation  companies,  except  through  the 
statement  of  sailings  and  terms  and  facilities  of  trans- 

10  Cp.  Report  of  Surgeon-General,  1904,  p.  202 ;  Report  of  Mas- 
sachusetts State  Board  of  Charities,  1904,  p.  95. 

11  Regulations,  Aug.  26,  1903,  Rule  17. 

12  Cp.   Bureau   Circular,   1903,  No.   I. 

13  Cp.   supra,   chapter   ii.,  E.     See   also   Special  Consular  Re- 
ports, vol.  30   (1904)   passim. 


246  Immigration  Legislation 

portation,  is  practically  a  dead  letter.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  known  that  an  enormous  number  of  agents  and  sub- 
agents  are  continually  at  work  trying  to  induce  all  kinds 
of  aliens  to  emigrate  to  this  country,  by  making  all  sorts 
of  representations.  This  has  gone  to  such  an  extent 
that  some  of  the  foreign  governments  who  were  desirous 
of  retaining  their  citizens  for  military  service,  have  been 
obliged  to  enact  stringent  regulations  and  to  make  many 
prosecutions  to  prevent  such  solicitation.  As  the  Com- 
missioner-General says  in  his  report  for  1904: 14 

"  It  is  useless,  if  not  puerile,  to  trust  that  the  transpor- 
tation lines  representing  enormous  investments  of  capital 
operated  for  that  express  purpose,  will  not  resort  to  every 
known  means  to  secure  passengers,  or  that  persons  act- 
ing as  agents  in  foreign  countries  will  not  do  likewise  to 
secure  commissions,  even  if  such  acts  involve  violation 
of  the  laws  of  the  United  States." 

The  following  extracts  from  the  report  of  Special 
Immigrant  Inspector  Marcus  Braun  13  indicate  both  the 
extent  to  which  this  unnatural  stimulation  of  immigra- 
tion has  gone,  and  the  disastrous  results  likely  to  follow 
from  it: 

"  While  I  have  no  direct  proof  that  the  steam- 
ship companies  are  directly  concerned  or  even  tolerate  the 
giving  of  these  secret  instructions  ['  coaching '  immi- 
grants for  passing  the  inspection],  yet  I  learned  in  the 
course  of  my  travels,  particularly  in  the  countries  of 
Austria-Hungary  and  Russia,  that  a  large  number  of 
reputable  persons,  such  as  priests,  school  teachers,  post- 
masters and  country  notaries,  are  directly  connected  with 
certain  agents  representing  these  steamship  companies, 
and  that  they  advise  and  instruct  the  emigrants  how  to 
procure  steamship  tickets,  passports,  and  all  other  things 

14  Page  44.  Cp.  J.  D.  Whelpley,  The  Problem  of  the  Immigrant. 

15  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1903, 
pp.  86-96. 


Effect  of  the  Present  Laws  247 

necessary  for  their  travel,  for  all  of  which  they  receive 
a  commission  from  the  agent  employing  them.  It  is 
obvious  that  since  the  amount  of  the  earnings  depends 
entirely  upon  the  amount  of  business  procured,  hence  in 
their  anxiety,  the  sub-agents  above  enumerated,  by  prom- 
ises and  in  order  to  earn  a  commission,  induce  a  large 
number  of  persons  to  leave  their  homes  and  come  to  the 
United  States.  The  governments  of  each  of  these  coun- 
tries, in  good  faith,  are  endeavoring  to  stop  this  sort  of 
traffic  and  provide  for  the  punishment  of  any  person  in- 
ducing another  to  leave  the  country,  but  I  found  that  in 
many  of  the  towns  visited  the  local  authorities  are  in 
league  with  the  sub-agents  and  their  business  thrives 
practically  with  the  consent  of  the  officials  whose  duty  it 
is  to  prevent  it ;  this  is  particularly  true  of  Austria-Hun- 
gary, as  I  was  able  to  ascertain  from  personal  interviews 
with  a  large  number  of  emigrants  at  the  Austro-Prus- 
sian  border.  .  .  .  The  deplorable  political  and  finan- 
cial conditions  of  the  eastern  and  southern  countries 
of  Europe,  coupled  with  the  prosperous  condition  of  the 
United  States,  creates  a  large  natural  emigration  to  our 
shores.  The  most  convincing  proof  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people  of  these  countries  of  the  exceptional  prosperity  of 
our  country  is  the  large  sums  of  money,  almost  unpre- 
cedented to  them,  which  annually  arrive  from  friends  and 
relatives  residing  in  the  United  States.  Besides  this  nat- 
ural emigration,  however,  we  are  burdened  with  a  dan- 
gerous and  most  injurious  unnatural  immigration  which 
from  year  to  year  assumes  larger  proportions.  This  un- 
natural emigration  consists  of  paupers  and  assisted  emi- 
grants, and  is  induced  and  brought  about  by  the  unscrup- 
ulous and  greedy  activity  displayed  by  a  large  number  of 
agencies  and  sub-agencies  having  well-established  con- 
nections in  the  United  States  and  abroad,  apparently  un- 
known to  the  steamship  companies,  which  activity  mani- 
fests itself  in  the  peddling  of  steamship  tickets  and  pre- 
paids  on  the  installment  plan,  both  here  and  abroad,  the 
constant  agitation  and  offers  of  inducements  by  sub- 
agents  in  Europe,  occupying  semi-public  positions,  who, 
in  order  to  earn  commissions  play  upon  the  ignorance  and 
susceptibility  of  the  plain  peasant,  frequently  inducing 


248  Immigration  Legislation 

him  to  sell  or  mortgage  all  his  belongings  for  the 
purpose  of  raising  the  necessary  travelling  expenses, 
which  latter  transaction  is  also  turned  to  profit  by  such 
agent." 

That  there  is  a  vast  amount  of  "  coaching  "  of  immi- 
grants by  steamship  agents  and  officers  is  not  to  be 
doubted.  In  addition  to  what  is  done  before  the  immi- 
grant starts,  there  is  the  period  of  the  voyage  which  af- 
fords an  excellent  opportunity  for  instruction  as  to  how 
best  to  pass  inspection.  Much  light  is  thrown  upon  this 
subject  as  regards  the  Canadian  lines  in  the  letter  of  the 
International  Navigation  Company  to  the  Assistant  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  and  the  annexed  exhibits. le  It 
is  not  improbable  that  a  careful  investigation  would  dis- 
close evidence  of  "  coaching "  upon  other  lines.  In 
France,  schools  have  been  formed  to  enable  immigrants 
to  pass  the  Mexican  border,  and  in  Canada  to  help  Chi- 
nese and  others  to  be  smuggled  across  the  Canadian  line. 


D.     CONTRACT  LABOR  LAWS 

There  has  always  been  much  discussion  and  consider- 
able difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  benefit  of  the  con- 
tract labor  provisions  of  existing  law.  These  provisions 
were  originally  passed  with  the  object  of  shutting  out  low- 
grade  labor  in  the  mining  regions.  It  is  said  that  the 
first  importation  of  cheap  labor  into  the  mining  regions 
was  made  as  an  act  of  charity ; 17  but  the  succeeding  im- 
portations were  solely  in  the  interest  of  the  selfish  greed 
of  mine  owners  and  manufacturers,  some  of  whom  lived 
to  repent  their  action.  The  contract  labor  laws  have 

16  A  Brief  Account  of  Attempts  to  Control  Immigration  into 
the  United  States  via  Canada.     Aug.  3,  1900. 

17  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  p.  Ixxxi, 


Effect  of  the  Present  Laws  249 

shut  out  not  only  cheap  unskilled  labor,  but  also  skilled 
labor  except  when  similar  workers  could  not  be  found  un- 
employed in  this  country.  The  laws,  therefore,  tend  to 
exclude  both  the  worst  and  the  best  elements  of  immi- 
gration ;  for  a  skilled  laborer,  well  established  abroad,  is 
not  likely  to  come  to  this  country  without  some  definite 
future  in  view.  Indeed,  the  attitude  of  many  of  the 
labor  organizations  is  more  antagonistic  to  the  coming 
of  skilled  labor,  which  will  compete  in  a  larger  degree 
with  their  own  members,  than  to  the  coming  of  unskilled 
and  unorganized  labor  which  competes  with  them  only 
indirectly  or  after  a  considerable  period.  Apart,  how- 
ever, from  the  policy  of  these  provisions  ls  it  appears 
that  they  are  to  a  large  extent  nugatory  at  the  present 
time.19  In  the  first  place,  those  contracting  for  labor  and 
the  laborers  themselves  are  often  clever  in  evading  the 
laws,  and  it  is  frequently  very  difficult  to  get  convictions 
for  violations.  In  many  instances,  district  attorneys  are 
already  overworked  and  are  averse  to  taking  up  immi- 
gration cases,  especially  unless  the  evidence  is  very  clear. 
Then,  again,  the  dockets  of  the  Federal  Courts  are  so 
crowded  that  it  takes  a  long  time  for  a  case  to  be  reached, 
and  meanwhile  the  benefit  of  some  of  the  evidence  is 
frequently  lost.  The  courts,  further,  have  always  tended 
to  whittle  down  the  operation  of  these  Acts  as  far  as 
possible ;  as,  for  example,  by  holding,  prior  to  the  Act  of 
1903,  that  the  contract  must  have  been  a  bi-lateral  agree- 
ment made  before  the  sailing  of  the  vessel,  and  that  a 
promise  of  employment  acted  on  by  the  immigrant  was 
not  such  a  contract  as  was  contemplated  by  the  Act.  It 

18  As  to  the  argument  that  the  laws  themselves  show  the  ex- 
istence of  a  legitimate  demand  for  labor  see  Edward  Atkinson,  in 
Forum,  vol.   13,  p.  365    (May,   1892). 

19  See  H.  C.  Lodge,  in  Century,  vol.  67,  p.  468  (Jan.  1904). 


250  Immigration  Legislation 

has  also  been  held  recently  that  where  persons  have 
been  permitted  to  land  by  a  board  of  special  inquiry  they 
are  lawfully  in  the  country,  and  cannot  be  subsequently 
arrested  and  deported  as  contract  laborers.20  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  law  should  be  changed  so  that  a  de- 
cision of  the  board  favorable  to  the  alien  shall  not  be 
final.  21  It  must,  however,  be  admitted,  that  the  mere 
deportation  of  particular  laborers  would  have  little  effect 
upon  the  employers  in  deterring  them  from  attempting 
other  violations  of  the  law.  22  Another  defect  in  the 
present  laws  is  that  deportation  of  the  alien  removes  the 
most  important  witness  for  the  government.  Formerly, 
his  affidavit  was  taken  before  deportation;  but  latterly 
this  practice  has  been  discontinued,  and  deportations  have 
consequently  fallen  off. 23  The  present  status  of  the 
matter  is  described  by  the  Commissioner-General  as 
follows :  24 

"  To  state  the  situation  exactly,  it  is  now  indispensable 
to  the  Government's  successful  maintenance  of  a  penal 
action  under  the  provision  of  these  laws,  first,  that  an 
alien  contracted  for  shall  escape  the  vigilance  of  the  in- 

20  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1904, 
pp.  39,  102. 

21  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1904, 
p.  102.     Cp.  Act  of  Mar.  3,  1903,  sections  21,  22  and  25. 

22  The    Commission    appointed    to    investigate    the    Immigrant 
Station  at  Ellis  Island  said  in  its  report  (1904)  pp.  18,  30,  that 
it  had  been  unable  to  learn  of  a  single  successful  attempt  to 
enforce  the  provisions  of  section  5  of  the  Act  of  1903,  imposing 
a  penalty  upon  persons  importing  contract  laborers. 

23  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1902, 
p.   10.     The  numbers  rejected  fell  from  327  in   1901   to  275   in 
1902.     If  fines  could  have  been  collected  for  all  of  the  879  con- 
tract laborers  deported  in  1903,  the  total  gain  to  the  government 
would  have  been  $879,000. 

24  Report,  1901,  p.  32. 


Effect  of  the  Present  Laws  251 

spection  officer  and  effect  a  landing  and,  second,  that  the 
work  for  which  he  was  engaged  shall  be  unskilled  manual 
labor.  It  appears  superfluous  to  say  in  view  of  the  fore- 
going that  the  Bureau  has  no  report  to  make  of  the  suc- 
cessful prosecution  for  violation  of  the  alien  contract 
labor  laws,  nor  can  it  be  reasonably  expected  to  have 
such  report  to  make  in  the  future  unless  the  law  is  ap- 
propriately amended." 

The  question  how  far  one  who  comes  in  pursuance  of 
the  promise  of  a  relative  to  give  him  work  is  a  contract 
laborer,  is  one  of  great  difficulty.  In  order  to  make  the 
law  strict  enough  to  cover  abuses,  its  language  must  in- 
clude some  cases  which  are  harmless.  A  certain  dis- 
cretion it  seems  must  be  exercised  in  the  application,  and 
yet  that  is  always  to  be  regretted  in  laws  of  this  kind. 
It  is  no  longer  even  necessary  to  have  a  definite  promise 
of  employment  before  arriving  at  New  York  to  be  prac- 
tically certain  of  employment  in  some  lines  of  work. 
Employers  let  it  be  known  abroad  that  there  is  a  demand 
for  a  kind  of  labor  and  information  regarding  employ- 
ment to  be  obtained  at  a  certain  place  in  New  York  or 
elsewhere.  The  aliens  are  then  shipped  to  the  locality 
where  they  are  wanted.  25 

E.     IMMIGRATION   THROUGH   CANADA  AND   MEXICO 

A  source  of  much  difficulty  in  the  execution  of  the 
laws  has  always  been  the  immigration  of  undesirable 
aliens  to  the  United  States  by  way  of  Canada  and  Mexico. 
The  number  of  arrivals  at  Canadian  ports  in  recent  years, 
professedly  destined  to  the  United  States  have  been  as 
follows : 

23  See  Gino  C.  Speranza,  in  Outlook,  vol.  74,  pp.  407-410  (June 
13,  I903)- 


252  Immigration  Legislation 

1897 6,542 

1898 7,344 

1899 11,550 

1900.  .•. 20,011 

1901 21,674 

1902 29,109 

1903 35,920 

1904 30,374 

Under  various  contracts  with  the  transportation  com- 
panies, dated  September  7,  1893,  March  25,  1896  and 
November  I,  1901,  the  United  States  has  for  some  years 
maintained  stations  for  the  examination  of  trans-Atlantic 
and  trans-Pacific  immigrants  landing  in  Canada  and  des- 
tined to  the  United  States.  26  These  stations  are  Hali- 
fax, Montreal,  Quebec,  St.  John.  Yarmouth,  Vancouver 
and  Victoria.  Altogether  there  are  forty-seven  of  them 
along  the  Canadian  border,  including  one  at  Winnipeg, 
and  seven  along  the  Mexican  border. 

The  inspection  is,  in  general,  similar  to  that  at  ports  of 
the  United  States.  The  owners  of  Canadian  vessels 
agree  to  furnish  manifests  and  to  pay  the  head-tax. 
When  an  alien  is  found  admissible  he  is  given  a  certifi- 
cate which  he  shows  at  the  border.  The  steamship  lines 
agree  to  return  those  who  have  come  in  through  Canada 
and  become  public  charges  within  a  year,  in  like  manner 
as  in  the  case  of  aliens  landed  at  ports  of  this  country. 

To  the  direct  immigration  through  Canada  must  also 
be  added  the  large  number  who  give  Canada  as  their 
destination  and  then  sneak  in  across  the  border.  The 
latter  are  the  worst  of  all  immigrants.  In  the  words  of 
the  Commissioner  at  Montreal :  27 

26  For  the  text  of  the  last  agreement  see  Report  of  Commis- 
sioner-General of  Immigration,  1902,  pp.  46-48.     For  regulations 
as  to  inspection  of  aliens  landed  at  Canadian  ports  see  Dept.  Cir- 
cular of  Nov.   I,  1901. 

27  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1902, 
pp.  39,  40. 


Effect  of  the  Present  Laws  253 

"  The  Canadian  route  to  the  United  States  is  known 
to  every  unscrupulous  agent  in  Europe  and  is  by  that 
means  made  known  to  the  very  dregs  of  society,  many 
of  whom  having  been  rejected  at  the  United  States  ports 
sought  this  easy  mode  of  escaping  the  effect  of  official 
vigilance.  ...  It  will  be  seen  that  those  aliens  clas- 
sified as  Canadian  immigrants,  and  who  are  simply  so 
classified  to  conceal  their  real  intention,  furnish  in  the 
aggregate  a  greater  amount  of  specific  disease  and  gen- 
eral inadmissibility  than  all  the  immigrants  examined  at 
all  the  United  States  ocean  ports  of  entry  combined,  in- 
cluding Quebec,  St.  John  and  Halifax."  28  Many  con- 
tract laborers  also  come  in  by  the  Canadian  route  as  af- 
fording a  method  more  difficult  of  detection. 

These  facts  led  recently  to  an  increased  rigor  of  in- 
spection on  the  frontiers.  As  a  result,  the  rejections  at 
the  border  ports  of  Canada  and  Mexico  were  5437  in 
1902  and  6856  in  iQo/j..29  Of  the  rejections  in  1904, 
2001  were  on  the  Canadian  border  and  4855  on  the  Mex- 
ican border;  showing  that  attempted  evasions  of  the 
law  have  been  largely  transferred  to  Mexico  since  the 
more  severe  inspection  on  the  Canadian  frontier.  The 
only  radical  remedy  for  the  present  state  of  things  would 
be  for  Canada  and  Mexico  to  adopt  the  American  immi- 
gration laws,  and  a  system  of  inspection  as  thorough  as 

28  The  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  New  York  reported  recently 
that  as  many  as  75  per  cent,  of  all  their  dependents  had  come  in 
via  Canada.     Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigra- 
tion, 1902,  p.  43.     In   1904,   15,359  aliens  examined  at  Canadian 
ports,  destined  to  the  United  States,  furnished  262  inadmissibles ; 
•while  9438  examined  at  the  border  yielded  667  equally  inadmis- 
sible persons.     Report   of   the   Commissioner-General   of  Immi- 
gration, 1904,  p.  95. 

29  See  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration, 
1902,  p.  ii ;  ibid.  1904,  p.  10. 


254  Immigration  Legislation 

that  in  vogue  in  this  country ;  or  to  permit  the  inspection 
by  American  officers  of  all  aliens  whether  destined  to  the 
United  States  or  otherwise.  At  present,  the  inspection 
in  Canada  is  a  matter  of  contract  and  courtesy  on  the 
part  of  the  steamship  companies  and  has  no  color  of 
authority  from  the  Canadian  government.  Canada  and 
Mexico  have  always  been  very  anxious  to  obtain  colonists, 
the  former  spending  large  sums  in  advertising  for  immi- 
grants ;  consequently  they  have  not  been  critical  in  regard 
to  the  quality  of  their  immigration. 

Two  influences,  however,  have  cooperated  to  induce 
Canada  to  take  the  first  steps  towards  regulation  of  im- 
migration on  her  own  account.  The  first  is  the  increased 
vigilance  of  American  inspection  along  the  border,  which 
has  resulted  in  turning  back  into  Canada  numerous  un- 
desirable persons.  The  second,  and  more  important  fac- 
tor, is  the  influence  of  the  transportation  companies  which 
dislike  to  have  their  passengers  delayed  by  a  rigid  border 
inspection.  The  net  result  to  date  has  been  the  passage 
of  a  law  by  Canada  in  1902  excluding  diseased  persons ; 
and  the  more  cordial  cooperation  of  the  Canadian  au- 
thorities with  the  United  States  inspectors  at  Canadian 
ports. 30  Under  the  present  system,  where  persons  are 
rejected  by  American  inspectors  at  Canadian  ports  for 
causes  also  defined  in  the  Canadian  law.  such  persons  are 
deported  to  Europe;  but  in  all  other  cases  this  govern- 
ment must  rely  upon  its  frontier  inspection. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  policing  of  3,000  miles  of  frontier 
is  a  difficult  matter.  There  are  at  least  thirty  points  along 

30  A  previous  attempt  to  check  diseased  persons  going  to 
Canada,  by  having  American  surgeons  at  British  ports  of  em- 
barkation, was  not  successful,  partly  because  the  steamship  lines 
insisted  on  bringing  rejected  aliens.  See  Report  of  the  Com- 
missioner-General of  Immigration,  ipoz,  p.  32. 


Effect  of  the  Present  Laws 

the  Canadian  border  where  railroads  cross  the  line. 
There  are,  also,  ferries  and  carriage  roads.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  United  States  inspectors  at  Canadian 
ports  should  be  withdrawn,  and  that  all  immigrants 
should  be  required  to  enter  this  country  at  certain  des- 
ignated frontier  points,  on  penalty  of  arrest.  It  would, 
however,  be  almost  impossible  to  apply  such  a  rule  to 
bona  fide  residents  of  Canada,  and  in  every  case  the 
question  of  residence  would  arise. 

In  spite  of  the  difficulties  of  the  present  arrangement 
much  has  been  accomplished  in  the  way  of  breaking  up 
the  smuggling  of  undesirable  immigrants,  31  and,  in  the 
future,  Canada  may  be  induced  to  make  her  standard  of 
immigrants  as  high  as  our  own. 

31  As  to  smuggling  and  prosecutions  for  the  same,  see  Report 
of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1903,  pp.  48,  49, 
97-99.  Recently  a  shipload  of  250  Syrians  was  landed  at  Vera 
Cruz  from  a  French  port,  and  a  number  of  these,  all  suffering 
from  trachoma  attempted  to  cross  at  Eagle  Pass.  See  Boston 
Evening  Transcript,  Jan.  6,  1903;  Boston  Herald,  March  27, 
1905. 


CHAPTER  XII 
PROPOSED     LEGISLATION 

A.     HEAD-TAX    AND    MONEY   TEST 

WHEN  further  restriction  of  immigration  is  under  dis- 
cussion, one  of  the  suggestions  which  comes  first  to  mind 
is  to  increase  the  head-tax.  The  raising  of  the  present 
tax  of  two  dollars  to  ten,  fifty  or  one  hundred  dollars 
would  no  doubt  considerably  diminish  immigration.  Of 
the  total  immigration  in  1904,  501,530,  or  84  per  cent,  of 
those  whose  money  was  reported,  brought  less  than  fifty 
dollars ;  and  a  tax  of  that  amount  would,  therefore,  have 
excluded  most  of  them. 

Even  a  large  head-tax  would  not,  however,  altogether 
stop  immigration;  for  friends  and  relatives  in  this  coun- 
try, who  prepay  most  of  the  tickets,  would  in  some  cases 
supply  the  extra  sum  needed.  In  general,  an  increase  of 
the  tax  would  tend  to  exclude  the  less  thrifty  and  enter- 
prising; but  a  tax  of  any  considerable  amount  would 
certainly  bar  out  many  desirable  immigrants  from  all 
races. 1 

The  head-tax,  of  course,  does  not  discriminate  directly 
between  those  with  good  and  those  with  bad  mental  and 
physical  characteristics.  Another  objection  to  it  is  that 
it  bears  more  severely  upon  the  man  with  a  family,  in- 
tending permanent  settlement,  than  it  does  upon  the  un- 
married birds  of  passage.  If  it  is  desirable  to  promote 

1  See  Gustav  H.  Schwab,  in  Forum,  vol.  14,  p.  810  (Feb.  1893)  '> 
Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  in  Century,  vol.  67,  p.  468  (Jan.  1904). 

256 


Proposed  Legislation  257 

the  immigration  of  families,  the  tax  cannot  be  applied 
strictly  per  capita;  there  must  be  some  exemption  of  wives 
and  children.  A  still  further  objection  often  made  to 
this  method  of  restriction  is,  that,  so  far  as  the  immigrant 
himself  pays  the  tax,  he  is  so  much  the  poorer  upon  his 
arrival.  This  is  precisely  the  time  when  he  needs  money  to 
support  him  until  he  can  obtain  work,  and  prevent  his 
becoming  a  public  charge.  It  is  probably  true,  however, 
that  the  improvement  in  the  quality  of  immigration  under 
a  higher  head-tax  would  more  than  offset  any  bad  results 
of  this  character. 

Somewhat  similar  to  the  head-tax  is  the  "  money  test," 
that  is  to  say,  the  requirement  that  each  immigrant  must 
possess  a  certain  sum  of  money,  say  the  equivalent  of  a 
year's  wages.2  The  Commissioner  at  New  York  has  sug- 
gested3 that  this  could  be  obtained  by  mere  executive 
order.  He  says,  in  speaking  of  the  public  charge  pro- 
vision of  the  law: 

"  I  think  its  execution  would  become  much  more 
effective  if  the  department  would  in  some  proper  form 
express  the  opinion  that  persons  having  less  than  a 
stated  sum,  say  $20  or  $30,  were  not  '  clearly  and  be- 
yond a  doubt '  entitled  to  land,  unless  they  gave,  not 
ordinary,  but  very  convincing  proof  of  some  exceptional 
qualifications  to  justify  their  admission,  and  that  in  all 
appeals  by  persons  excluded  as  paupers,  or  as  likely  to 

2  George  Gunton,  in  Lecture  Bulletin  of  the  Institute  of  Social 
Economics,   Nov.,   1901,   p.    94.     In   the    Fifty-second    Congress, 
Senator   Chandler,   in    Senate   Bill    3363,    proposed    the    exclu- 
sion of  persons  not  provided,  in  addition  to  the  means  of  reach- 
ing their  destination,  with  sufficient  money  for  their  support  for 
two  months  after  arrival ;   the  amount  required  not  to  exceed 
$100  for  each  single  person  or  head  of  a  family  and  $25  for  each 
member  of  a  family  except  the  head. 

3  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1902, 
P-  59- 


258  Immigration  Legislation 

become  public  charges,  it  would  presume  the  excluding 
decision  to  be  correct,  unless  such  persons  at  the  time  of 
landing  possessed  this  minimum  amount  over  and  above 
all  claims,  together  with  transportation  to  final  destina- 
tion. Such  a  rule  would  be  a  warning  to  many  over- 
zealous  emigration  agents  on  the  other  side,  who  are 
more  bent  on  securing  their  commissions  than  seeing  to 
it  that  no  ineligible  person  enters  this  country,  with  the 
result  that  numerous  chances  are  taken  with  regard  to 
the  eligibility  of  immigrants,  and  pauperized  families 
.  .  .  are  brought  here  who  would  never  have  left  the 
other  side." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  an  economic  test  of  this  char- 
acter would  be  to  some  extent  evaded.  Means  would  be 
found  through  some  arrangement  of  guaranty  between 
friends  or  relatives  of  aliens  and  immigrant  bankers,  here 
and  abroad,  to  supply  them  with  the  money  necessary  to 
pass  inspection,  to  be  returned  after  landing.  4  Never- 
theless, the  necessary  safeguards  of  such  a  system  would 
themselves  tend  to  restrict  its  application,  and  to  render 
the  law  an  efficient  means  of  restriction. 

B.    PHYSICAL  TEST 

Just  as  the  illiteracy  test  is  designed  not  only  to  secure 
rudimentary  education  on  the  part  of  immigrants,  but  also 
and  chiefly  to  exclude  those  undesirable  for  general  rea- 
sons, so  a  physical  test  would  bar  out  not  merely  persons 
of  poor  physique  or  physically  defective  or  imperfect, 
but,  in  addition,  a  considerable  proportion  of  those  liable 
to  become  paupers  and  diseased.  The  present  laws  ex- 
clude all  who  are  mentally  diseased  in  such  a  way  as  to 
be  a  burden  on  the  community ;  that  is  to  say,  the  insane, 

4  Thus  the  $30  invariably  shown  by  Japanese  immigrants  is  said 
to  be  furnished  by  the  immigration  companies.  Report  of  the 
Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  p.  756. 


Proposed  Legislation  259 

idiots,  and  persons  who  have  been  insane  within  a  few 
years ;  and,  on  the  physical  side,  those  with  dangerous  or 
loathsome  contagious  diseases.  The  next  logical  step, 
therefore,  if  there  is  to  be  a  further  restriction,  would 
seem  to  be  to  stiffen  the  requirements  for  admission,  both 
on  the  mental  and  on  the  physical  side.  On  this  account 
it  has  often  been  argued  that  if  there  is  to  be  an  educa- 
tional test  there  should  be  a  physical  test  as  well ;  and 
many  go  further  and  hold  that  the  relation  between  ap- 
parent physique  and  desirability,  is  much  closer  than  be- 
tween the  mental  intelligence,  necessary  to  read  and  write, 
and  desirability,  inasmuch  as  the  physical  condition  of 
the  individual  determines  to  a  great  extent  his  capacity 
and  opportunity  for  acquiring  education.  Furthermore, 
experience  shows  that  the  persons  of  poor  physique,  are, 
with  few  exceptions,  those  who  are  most  likely  to  become 
a  burden  upon  the  community.  To  a  considerable  ex- 
tent both  of  these  tests  would  hit  the  same  classes  of  in- 
dividuals; although  the  educational  test  would  exclude 
some  persons  of  extremely  good  physique  coming  from 
countries  where  opportunity  for  education  is  limited, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  admit  large  numbers, 
especially  of  Russian  and  German  Jews,  who  are  most 
prone  to  become  victims  of  tuberculosis  within  a  short 
time  after  landing. 

In  the  Fifty-second  Congress,  in  connection  with  a 
consular  certificate  bill 5  introduced  by  Senator  Lodge  of 
Massachusetts,  it  was  provided  that  the  immigrant  must 
have  a  certificate  stating  that  he  was  "  physically  and 
mentally  sound,  in  good  health  and  free  from  disease  or 
deformity  as  certified  by  a  physician  of  good  and  regular 
standing  known  to  the  consul  or  diplomatic  representa- 
tive with  whom  such  medical  certificate  shall  be  filed." 

'H.   R.  575,  §  2. 


260  Immigration  Legislation 

In  the  same  Congress  another  bill,6  introduced  by  Sena- 
tor Chandler  of  New  Hampshire,  added  to  the  excluded 
classes :  "  Persons  blind  or  crippled  or  otherwise  physi- 
cally imperfect  so  that  they  are  wholly  or  partially 
disabled  from  manual  labor,  unless  it  is  affirmatively  and 
satisfactorily  shown  on  special  inquiry  that  such  persons 
are  sure  of  abundant  support  and  not  likely  to  become 
a  public  charge."  In  view  of  the  various  changes  in  the 
law  since  these  provisions  were  suggested,  a  more  de- 
sirable form  of  the  test  might  be  to  exclude :  "  Per- 
sons physically  or  mentally  weak,  defective  or  degenerate 
so  that  their  ability  to  earn  a  living  in  their  trade,  occu- 
pation or  employment  is  thereby  affected,  whether  that 
trade,  occupation  or  employment  involves  hard  physical 
effort  or  not ;  but  this  clause  shall  not  be  held  to  exclude 
the  wife,  minor  children,  or  parents  of  anyone  who  is 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States  at  the  time  of  the  passage 
of  this  act  or  of  any  person  who  may  become  a  citizen 
of  the  United  States  within  five  years  after  such  pas- 
sage, if  it  be  affirmatively  and  satisfactorily  shown,  on 
special  inquiry,  that  such  citizen  is  able  to  give  his  wife, 
minor  children,  or  parents  adequate  support."  7 

6S.  3663. 

7  The  importance  of  a  proper  physical  test  has  been  repeatedly 
emphasized  by  the  immigration  authorities.  Thus,  the  Commis- 
sioner at  New  York  says  in  his  report  for  1004: 

"  We  are  receiving  too  many  immigrants  whose  physical  con- 
dition is  poor.  .  .  .  To  exclude  aliens  suffering  from  either 
physical  or  mental  ailment  it  is  generally  necessary  to  show  that 
they  are  likely  to  become  public  charges,  and  yet  it  is  obviously 
impossible  to  exclude  on  this  ground  all  persons  whose  physical 
condition  is  poor.  I  think  that  in  all  instances  in  which  the  U.  S. 
Marine  Hospital  surgeons  who  conduct  the  medical  examination 
at  the  immigration  stations  certify  in  writing  that  the  physical 
condition  of  an  immigrant  dependent  for  support  upon  his  own 
physical  exertions,  is  below  a  certain  standard  to  be  designated 


Proposed  Legislation  261 

It  has  also  been  suggested  that  section  10  of  the 
present  act  shall  be  supplemented  by  a  provision  that, 
whenever  an  examining1  medical  officer  certifies  that 
an  alien  has  a  mental  or  physical  defect  which  will,  in 
his  opinion,  affect  the  alien's  ability  to  earn  a  living 
through  physical  effort,  including  manual  labor,  the 
alien  shall  be  held  for  special  inquiry;  and  at  such  in- 
quiry the  sole  question  for  determination  shall  be 
whether  or  not  the  alien  must  rely  on  physical  effort  to 
earn  a  living;  if  this  question  be  determined  in  the 
affirmative  the  alien  shall  be  excluded.  In  other  words, 
the  question,  what  effect  a  given  physical  imperfection 
is  likely  to  have  upon  an  immigrant's  power  to  work  is 
really  a  medical  question  for  medical  experts  and  should 
not  be  decided  by  a  board  of  special  inquiry;  but  such 
board  may  properly  pass  upon  the  general  question  as 
to  how  the  immigrant  shall  be  obliged  to  earn  his  living. 

During  the  year  1904,  at  the  port  of  New  York,  4802 
cases  of  serious  physical  defects  were  certified ;  and  out 
of  a  total  of  4916  cases  to  be  accounted  for,  3478  were 
landed.  This  statement  covers  only  the  serious  physical 
defects  or  diseases;  and  17,422  cases  were  recorded  of 
aliens  with  minor  defects,  many  of  whom,  no  doubt, 

by  them  by  some  appropriate  term,  whether  this  be  '  low  vitality,' 
'  poor  physique,'  or  some  other  similar  expression  or  that  he 
is  'senile,'  such  immigrants  should  be  excluded,  subject  to  cer- 
tain reasonable  exceptions.  .  .  ."  Report  of  the  Commissioner- 
General  of  Immigration,  1904,  pp.  105-106.  Cp.  ibid.  1903,  pp. 
84,  120.  The  standard  sometimes  used  by  the  officers  of  the 
Marine  Hospital  Service  in  certifying  cases  to  the  board  of  special 
inquiry  is  that  of  the  United  States  Infantry  recruiting  officers. 

At  present,  as  has  been  already  noted,  many  immigrants  suf- 
fering even  with  serious  physical  defects  are  allowed  to  be  landed 
on  the  promise  of  some  irresponsible  person  that  they  shall  be 
cared  for  or  given  work. 


262  Immigration  Legislation 

ought  properly  to  have  been  excluded.  If  a  physical 
test  is  to  be  adopted,  it  should  be  an  absolute  cause  for 
exclusion.  The  practice  of  admitting  aliens  on  the  oral 
guaranty  of  some  person  that  they  shall  not  become  a 
public  charge  should  be  restricted,  and  should  not  be 
allowed  in  the  case  of  physical  defectives,  as  experience 
has  shown  that  such  guaranties  are  of  no  value.  In  any 
law  prescribing  a  physical  test,  too,  it  would  seem  to 
be  necessary  to  make  some  exceptions  in  the  cases  of 
persons  of  independent  means.  It  would  be  impracti- 
cable to  insist  upon  the  appearance  before  a  board  of 
special  inquiry  of  every  case  certified  by  a  medical  in- 
spector; as,  for  example,  some  very  prominent  cabin 
passenger  of  ample  means  travelling  for  his  health  or 
upon  business,  might  be  subject  to  a  physical  defect 
which  would  exclude  him  under  such  a  provision. 

It  has  also  been  suggested  that  pending  any  radical 
action  by  Congress,  or  any  construction  by  the  depart- 
ment of  section  10,  which  would  accomplish  the  same 
purpose,  there  should  be  a  rule  requiring  the  commis- 
sioner of  immigration  in  charge  at  a  port  where  a  physi- 
cally defective  alien  is  landed,  to  notify  in  writing  the 
officials  of  the  municipality  in  which  such  alien  intends 
to  reside,  that  he  has  been  admitted,  giving  sufficient 
information  to  identify  him.  If,  subsequently,  he  be- 
comes a  public  charge  the  chain  of  evidence  necessary 
to  secure  his  deportation  will  then  be  complete. 

C.     ILLITERACY    TEST8 

We  come  now  to  the  method  of  restriction  which  has 
practically  monopolized  public  and  legislative  attention 

8  Senate  Reports,  54th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  No.  290  (1896);  re- 
printed as  Senate  Reports,  55th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  No.  13  (1897) ; 


Proposed  Legislation  263 

for  the  past  ten  years.  For  this  reason  a  more  detailed 
account  of  its  history  and  merits  will  be  given  than  has 
been  accorded  to  other  plans.  By  whom  this  method  was 
first  suggested  is  a  matter  of  doubt ; 9  but  it  first  came 
into  prominence  in  1895  shortly  after  the  formation  of 
the  Immigration  Restriction  League  in  1894,  although 
embodied  in  various  bills  before  that  time.10  It  will  be 
convenient  to  consider  first  the  history  of  the  test  and 
then  its  merits  and  defects. 

In  December,  1895,  a  bill  prepared  by  the  Immigra- 
tion Restriction  League  was  introduced  into  the  Senate 
by  Mr.  Lodge  of  Massachusetts,  and  into  the  House  by 
Mr.  McCall  of  Massachusetts.11  Since  then  this  bill  has 

Prescott  F.  Hall,  "  Immigration  and  the  Educational  Test,"  in 
North  American  Review,  vol.  165,  p.  393  (Oct.,  1897)  ;  ibid., 
"  New  Problems  of  Immigration,"  in  Forum,  vol.  30,  p.  555 
(Jan.,  1901)  ;  Publications  of  the  Immigration  Restriction  League, 
Nos,  6,  10,  11,  13,  14,  21,  23,  24,  30,  31,  32,  34,  35 ;  Speech 
of  Hon.  S.  W.  McCall  in  the  House  of  Representatives  May  20, 
1896;  Speech  of  Hon.  H.  C  Lodge  in  the  Senate,  Mar.  16,  1896; 
Speech  of  Hon.  Charles  W.  Fairbanks  in  the  Senate,  Jan.  II, 
1898. 

9  It  was  advocated  by  Senator  H.  C.  Lodge  of  Massachusetts 
in  the  North  American  Review,  vol.  152,  p.  36  (Jan.  1891). 

10  "  It  seems  to  a  majority  of  the  committee  that  the  time  has 
come,  in  view  of  the  alarming  increase  within  the  last  few  years 
of  illiterate  immigrants,  to  adopt  a  reasonable  requirement  of  in- 
telligence  on   the   part   of  newcomers   seeking  the  privilege   of 
residence  and  citizenship  in  our  great  and  prosperous  Republic. 
.     .     .     Persons  of  proper  age  must  be  able  to  read  and  write 
with  reasonable  facility  their  own  language;  but  aged  persons 
not  so  able  may  come  with  or  join  their  families.     As  a  partial 
check  to  the  addition  of  undesirable  persons  to  our  population 
the  majority  of  the  Committee  cannot  devise  any  wiser  or  more 
rational  provision."     Senate  Reports,  52d   Cong.,  2d   Sess.,   No. 

1333   (1893). 

11  H.  R.  9;  S.  301.     Cp.  S.  310  introduced  by  Senator  Chandler 
of  New  Hampshire. 


264  Immigration  Legislation 

generally  been  known  as  the  "  Lodge  bill."  It  provided 
for  an  addition  to  the  excluded  classes  of  "  all  persons 
between  fourteen  and  sixty  years  of  age  who  cannot 
both  read  and  write  the  English  language  or  some  other 
language." 

On  April  2,  1896,  Mr.  Bartholdt,  for  the  House  Com- 
mittee on  Immigration,  reported  a  bill  excluding  illiterate 
males  between  sixteen  and  sixty  years  of  age,  but  ex- 
empting parents  of  residents  or  immigrants.12  On 
February  18,  1896,  Mr.  Lodge,  from  the  Senate  Com- 
mittee, reported  a  bill  excluding  illiterates  over  fourteen 
years  of  age,  with  an  exemption  in  the  case  of  aged  par- 
ents or  grandparents  of  admissible  or  resident  immi- 
grants. This  bill  also  provided  machinery  for  making 
the  test  of  illiteracy.13 

On  May  20,  1896,  the  bill  passed  the  House  by  a  vote 
of  195  to  26;  and  on  December  17,  1896,  it  passed  the 
Senate  by  a  vote  of  52  to  10.  The  votes  in  each  case 
were  not  in  the  least  on  party  lines.  On  January  21, 
1897,  a  bill  was  reported  from  conference,  similar  to  the 
bill  as  it  finally  passed,  except  that  it  required  immigrants 
to  "  read  and  write  the  English  language  or  the  language 
of  their  native  or  resident  country."  The  opposition  im- 
mediately discovered  that  this  form  of  wording  would 
exclude  a  large  proportion  of  the  Jews,  Yiddish  not  being 
a  language  of  any  recognized  country.  Immediately, 
there  was  an  emphatic  protest  from  influential  Jewish 
bankers  in  New  York  City  and  from  other  prominent 
Jews,  and  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  restore  the  original 
wording  of  the  League's  bill  requiring  the  reading  and 
writing  of  the  "  English  language  or  some  other  lan- 

12  H.   R.   7864.     House   Reports,   54th   Cong.,    ist    Sess.,    No. 
1079- 

13  S.  2147.     Senate  Reports,  54th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  No.  290. 


Proposed  Legislation  265 

guage."  The  bill  as  finally  reported  by  the  conference 
committee  passed  the  Senate  February  9,  1897,  by  a  vote 
of  34  to  31.  This  close  vote  is  to  be  explained  by  the 
efforts  of  the  steamship  companies  and  their  sympathizers 
to  defeat  the  measure.  For  example,  while  the  matter 
was  pending  in  the  House,  the  western  agents  for  the 
North  German  Lloyd  Steamship  Company  sent  the  fol- 
lowing telegram  to  numerous  persons :  "  Immigration 
bill  comes  up  in  the  House  Wednesday ;  wire  your  Con- 
gressman, our  expense,  protesting  against  proposed  ex- 
clusion and  requesting  bill  be  defeated,  informing  him 
that  vote  in  favor  means  defeat  next  election."  At  about 
the  same  time,  the  same  firm  sent  out  a  letter  stating 
that  if  the  Lodge  bill  became  a  law  immigration  would 
be  restricted  "  almost  to  the  extent  of  total  exclusion," — 
a  most  absurd  statement — and  saying  that  every  effort 
should  therefore  be  made  to  defeat  the  bill.  With  this 
letter  was  sent  a  slip  as  follows :  "  Wire  your  repre- 
sentative fully  and  let  us  know  cost  of  telegram  and  we 
will  promptly  refund  amount  to  you."  Comment  on  such 
communications  seems  unnecessary. 

During  the  passage  of  the  bill  through  the  House, 
Representative  Corliss  of  Michigan  succeeded  in  having 
four  sections,  dealing  with  an  entirely  different  subject, 
the  coming  of  Canadians  across  the  border  to  perform 
daily  labor  in  the  United  States,  added  to  it  by  way  of 
amendment.  The  labor  unions  of  Detroit  and  other 
places  in  Michigan,  to  which  State  Mr.  Corliss  was 
accredited,  who  were  affected  by  this  daily  migration, 
had  asked  for  some  measure  of  relief.  So  the  so-called 
"  Corliss  amendment  "  was  made  a  part  of  the  bill,  much 
against  the  wishes  of  its  friends,  and  only  because  of  a 
fear  that  it  might  be  held  up  if  the  amendment  were 
opposed.  As  will  presently  be  shown,  this  amendment 


266  Immigration  Legislation 

was  what  really  caused  the  veto  of  the  measure  14  by 
President  Cleveland,  on  March  2,  1897. 15 

In  his  veto  the  President  rehearsed  the  benefits  of 
immigration  in  the  past,  referred  to  the  quantity  of  land 
still  available  for  settlement,  and  maintained  that  labor 
difficulties  were  the  result  of  temporary  depression  and 
would  be  remedied  in  natural  ways.  He  further  ex- 
pressed less  fear  from  large  masses  of  ignorant  immi- 
grants than  from  a  few  educated  agitators,  and  suggested 
that  if  the  illiteracy  test  were  being  advocated  as  a 
method  for  excluding  classes  undesirable  for  other 
reasons  than  illiteracy,  such  classes  should  be  directly 
legislated  against.  He  also  referred  to  the  separation 
of  families  which  might  take  place  in  spite  of  the  ex- 
emptions of  the  bill.  The  message  characterized  the 
sections  of  the  Corliss  amendment  as  unfriendly  legisla- 
tion which  could  hardly  fail  to  provoke  retaliatory  meas- 
ures, and  as  being  illiberal,  narrow  and  un-American. 
As  will  be  seen  by  any  one  who  reads  the  message,  the 
President  vigorously  expressed  his  disapproval  of  the 
whole  bill.  It  has  been  said,  however,  on  apparently 
good  authority,  that  in  view  of  the  very  large  vote  by 
which  the  illiteracy  test  had  passed  both  Houses  twice, 
the  President  would  not  have  interposed  his  veto  but 
for  the  provisions  affecting  the  border  immigration  from 
Canada.  It  must  be  remembered  that  at  this  time  there 

14  As  the  Lodge  Bill  has  been  long  out  of  print,  and  as  there 
is  a  constant  demand  for  the  text  of  the  measure,  it  is  given  in 
full  in  Appendix  III.  as  it  went  to  the  President;  but  readers 
should  remember  that  sections  4  to  7  inclusive  are  no  proper  part 
of  the  illiteracy  test  bill,  and  were  added  in  the  manner  above 
narrated. 

15  Senate  Documents,  54th  Cong.,  2d   Sess.,  No.   185.    For  a 
discussion  of  this  veto,  see  John  Chetwood,  Jr.,  in  Arena,  vol. 
17,  pp.  788-801   (Dec.   1897). 


Proposed  Legislation  267 

were  many  questions  of  grave  importance  pending  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Canada,  such  as  the 
question  of  the  seal  fisheries  and  the  Alaskan  boundary. 
In  addition  to  the  general  desirability  of  avoiding  trouble 
with  a  near  neighbor,  with  whom  the  United  States  had 
hitherto  been  on  friendly  terms,  it  was  of  the  greatest 
consequence  for  the  successful  adjustment  of  the  various 
matters  in  controversy  that  friction  should  not  be  created 
and  bad  feeling  engendered  by  the  passage  of  a  measure 
containing  such  irritating  and  vexatious  clauses  as  those 
of  the  Corliss  amendment;  and  on  this  account  the  veto 
can  be  supported  even  by  friends  of  the  illiteracy 
test. 

The  House,  however,  at  that  time  was  not  at  all  in 
sympathy  with  the  President,  and,  on  the  same  day  that 
the  veto  was  received,  passed  the  bill  again  over  the 
veto  by  a  vote  of  193  to  37,  which  was  very  nearly  as 
large  a  majority  as  that  by  which  it  had  passed  the 
conference  report  and  the  original  bill.  There  was, 
however,  no  time  to  secure  its  passage  over  the  veto 
by  the  Senate,  if  indeed  the  necessary  two-thirds  could 
have  been  secured,  which  was  very  doubtful. 

In  the  Fifty-fifth  Congress,  the  bill  of  the  Immigration 
Restriction  League  was  again  introduced,  and  passed  the 
Senate  January  17,  1898,  by  a  vote  of  45  to  28;  but, 
owing  to  the  great  pressure  of  business,  especially  that 
arising  out  of  the  Spanish  War,  no  action  was  taken 
in  the  House,  although  a  canvass  showed  a  considerable 
majority  in  favor  of  the  measure.16 

16  This  bill  was  introduced  by  Mr.  McCall  as  H.  R.  I  on  Mar. 
IS.  1897;  and  by  Mr.  Lodge  as  S.  112  on  Mar.  16,  1897.  The  re- 
port was  Senate  Reports,  S5th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  No.  13,  being 
a  reprint  of  54th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  No.  290.  Consideration  was 
refused  in  the  House,  Dec.  14,  1898,  by  a  vote  of  103  to  100. 


268  Immigration  Legislation 

While  the  matter  was  pending,  the  opposition  was  not 
idle;  and  an  organization  was  formed  in  1898,  called 
the  Immigration  Protective  League,  for  the  purpose  of 
defeating  legislation.  The  promoter  and  secretary  of 
this  organization  was  Dr.  J.  H.  Senner,  who  will  be 
referred  to  again.  The  principal  work  of  the  Immigra- 
tion Protective  League,  apart  from  appearing  at  one  or 
two  hearings,  was  the  distribution  of  circular  letters, 
printed  in  the  German  language,  which  were  sent  to 
German  but  not  to  English  newspapers,  and  to  various 
German  societies  throughout  the  United  States.  These 
circulars  were  so  remarkable  that  they  deserve  quotation. 
The  one  sent  out  in  1898  contained  the  following  lan- 
guage : 

"...  The  nativistic  authors  of  such  entirely 
superfluous  new  laws  pretend  that  their  only  object  is 
to  protect  the  American  laboring  man  against  foreign 
competition.  This  is,  however,  only  a  poor  excuse  for 
their  real  scheme,  dictated  by  that  hatred  of  the  foreigner, 
whom  they  would  like  to  exclude  altogether.  .  .  . 

"  If,  in  particular,  the  now  comparatively  feeble  stream 
of  German  immigration  is  completely  cut  off,  then  they 
will  succeed  in  oppressing  Germans  in  this  country,  and 
ruin  the  German  element  politically  and  industrially.  To 
the  great  satisfaction  and  delight  of  the  English-Ameri- 
can press,  many  a  German  newspaper,  whose  competition 
is  a  thorn  in  their  flesh,  will  be  forced  to  the  wall.  No 
German  church  building  will  then  be  erected  any  more, 
or  conserved;  no  German  school  could  exist,  and  the 
German  language  will  disappear  from  the  public 
schools." 

When  it  is  remembered  that,  on  the  strictest  construc- 
tion, the  Lodge  bill  would  have  excluded  less  than  1.5 
per  cent,  of  German  immigrants  it  is  apparent  that  the 
absurdity  of  such  an  appeal  to  race  prejudice  has  rarely 
been  equalled.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  Germans  in 


Proposed  Legislation  269 

this  country  are  among  the  best  foreign-born  citizens  we 
have,  and  no  one  would  wish  to  ruin  them  industrially, 
even  if  it  were  possible,  as  it  is  not.  Senator  Fairbanks 
stated  in  1898 : 18 

"  I  received  and  am  still  receiving  protests  [against 
the  Lodge  bill]  from  various  societies  in  Indiana.  One 
of  them  was  from  a  German  organization  in  Jefferson- 
ville.  I  took  the  trouble  to  investigate  this,  and  found  it 
had  been  directly  instigated  by  a  steamship  agent,  and 
that  the  members  of  the  German  Aid  Society,  who  osten- 
sibly protested,  were  led  to  believe  that  it  was  a  general 
restriction  of  immigration  and  not  merely  an  attempt 
to  keep  out  illiterates,  which  these  very  men  who  pro- 
tested heartily  approved  of."  19 

In  the  Fifty-sixth  Congress,  the  Senate  Committee 
reported  an  illiteracy  test  bill  on  January  15,  1900,  but 
no  vote  was  taken  in  either  house.  In  the  Fifty-seventh 
Congress  the  Immigration  Restriction  League  again 
caused  its  bill  to  be  introduced  into  both  houses.20  The 
machinery  for  applying  the  test,  omitting  the  writing 
requirement,  was  substantially  the  same  as  in  former 

18  Chicago   Tribune,  Jan.   21,    1898.    The   Evansville,   Indiana, 
Courier  of  Jan.  19,  1897,  in  speaking  of  protests  against  the  Lodge 
bill  from  certain  branches  of  the  German  Catholic  Central  Society 
of  the  United  States  pointed  out  that  the  Evansville  Branch  of 
the  Society  would  have  endorsed  the  Lodge  bill  if  they  had  not 
been  misled  into  supposing  that  the  bill  required  the  reading  and 
writing  of  English.     Such  a  belief  would  have  been  a  very  natural 
consequence    of    reading   the  circulars    above    referred    to.     See 
also    an    article   by    Hon.    Wm.    A.    Stone    of    Pennsylvania,    in 
Illustrated  American,  vol.  21,  p.  840  (June  26,  1897). 

19  See  further,  as  to  the  opposition  of  the  steamship  companies, 
Publications   of   the   Immigration   Restriction   League,   Nos.   22, 
24  and  32. 

20  H.  R.  2013  by  Mr.  Watson  of  Indiana,  Dec.  13,  1901 ;  S.  222 
by  Mr.  Lodge  of  Massachusetts,  Dec.  4,  1901. 


270  Immigration  Legislation 

years,  and  the  language  of  the  excluding  clause  was  as 
follows:  "All  persons  over  fifteen  years  of  age  and 
physically  capable  of  reading  who  cannot  read  the  Eng- 
lish language  or  some  other  language ;  but  an  admissible 
immigrant  or  a  person  now  in  or  hereafter  admitted  to 
this  country  may  bring  in  or  send  for  his  wife,  his 
children  under  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  his  parents 
or  grandparents  over  fifty  years  of  age,  if  they  are 
otherwise  admissible,  whether  they  are  so  able  to  read 
and  write  or  not."  At  this  time,  the  bill  prepared  in 
accordance  with  the  recommendations  of  the  Industrial 
Commission  and  of  a  conference  of  the  commissioners 
of  immigration  at  the  various  ports,  which  afterwards 
became  the  Act  of  March  3,  1903,  was  pending.21  On 
May  22,  1902,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Underwood  of  Alabama 
the  educational  test,  in  the  form  last  given  above,  was 
added  to  the  bill  in  committee  of  the  whole  by  a  vote  of 
86  to  7.22 

On  June  23,  1902,  the  bill  was  favorably  reported  by 
the  Senate  Committee,  but  in  the  session  of  1902-3  it 

21 H.  R.  12,  199,  reported  March  18,  1902.  House  Reports, 
57th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  No.  982. 

22  While  the  bill  was  pending,  the  Immigration  Protective 
League  published  another  circular  in  the  German  language,  of  a 
part  of  which  the  following  is  a  translation : 

"  Again  the  nativistic  serpent  raises  its  poisonous  head  and 
seeks  to  press  through  the  United  States  Congress  some  bill  to 
forbid  immigration  wholly  or  to  limit  it  to  such  an  extent  that 
the  coming  of  your  brothers  and  sisters  from  the  old  fatherland 
must  wholly  or  partially  cease.  Do  you  know  what  this  means? 
Observe  the  treatment  of  the  Chinese  and  negroes  in  this  country 
and  you  know  what  lies  before  you." 

The  bill  as  it  passed  the  house  would  have  excluded  at  most 
only  15  to  20  per  cent,  of  the  total  immigration,  and  probably  not 
over  one  per  cent,  of  the  German  immigration. 

It  is  interesting  also  to  note  that  at  the  hearings  before  the 


Proposed  Legislation  271 

became  evident  that  although  a  majority  of  the  Senate 
favored  the  educational  test,  certain  senators  were  de- 
termined to  defeat  the  whole  bill  if  the  section  embody- 
ing this  test  were  retained,  and  Messrs.  Penrose,  Lodge 
and  Fairbanks,  who  were  in  charge  of  the  bill,  agreed  to 
drop  this  section  (Sec.  3)  in  order  to  save  the  general 
bill. 

In  the  Fifty-eighth  Congress  the  League's  bill  in  the 
form  last  given  was  introduced  into  both  houses,23  but 
no  reports  on  any  measures  were  received  from  the  Im- 
migration Committee  of  either  the  House  or  the  Senate. 
This  was  owing  partly  to  the  pressure  of  other  mat- 
ters, partly  to  the  great  increase  in  industrial  activity 
which  created  a  temporary  demand  for  unskilled  labor, 
and  partly  to  a  desire  to  see  the  practical  operation  of 
the  Act  of  March  3,  1903,  before  undertaking  further 
legislation. 

During  all  these  years  from  1894  on,  the  subject  of 
immigration  restriction  was  attracting  wide  attention 
through  the  country.  The  question  of  the  illiteracy  test 
was  debated  in  the  schools  and  colleges,  and  advocated 
or  denounced  in  lectures,  pulpits  and  from  professors' 
chairs.  Seldom  has  a  question  of  which  the  public  has 
made  so  little  study  been  a  subject  of  such  widespread 

Senate  Committee  in  1903,  the  bill  which  became  the  Act  of 
March  3,  1903  was  opposed  by  the  International  Navigation 
Company,  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railroad  Co.,  the 
Southern  Pacific  Railroad  Co.,  and  the  Hawaiian  Sugar  Planters' 
Association.  The  railroads  and  steamships,  of  course,  have  a 
joint  interest  in  the  immigrant  traffic  and  the  former  are  also  in- 
terested as  employers  of  cheap  labor.  As  to  the  combination  to 
control  the  immigrant  situation,  see  Chicago  Times-Herald  of 
Nov.  22,  1897,  which  gives  a  list  of  the  affiliated  corporations. 

23  H.  R.  832  by  Mr.  Watson  of  Indiana,  Nov.  10,  1903 ;  S.  15 
by  Mr.  Lodge,  Nov.  n,  1903. 


272  Immigration  Legislation 

interest  and  it  is  on  this  account  that  the  history  of  this 
particular  measure  has  been  given  with  such  detail.  The 
only  other  recent  suggestion  in  regard  to  the  educational 
test  has  been  that  in  which  it  was  combined  with  consular 
inspection,  an  intending  immigrant  being  required  to 
produce  a  consular  certificate  that  he  could  read  and 
write.24  No  action  has  ever  been  taken  on  this 
suggestion. 

We  come  now  to  some  consideration  of  the  merits 
and  defects  of  this  proposed  plan  of  restriction.  It  has 
been  a  handicap  to  the  educational  test  that  its  purpose 
and  working  are  often  misunderstood,  even  by  those  who 
are  in  favor  of  it.  This  misunderstanding  is  usually 
expressed  in  the  saying:  "A  man  is  no  more  moral 
because  he  can  read  and  write."  President  Cleveland 
himself,  in  his  veto  message,  showed  that  he  was  not 
entirely  familiar  with  the  object  sought  to  be  gained 
by  the  bill  and  the  way  in  which  this  object  would  be 
accomplished.  The  principal  difficulty  with  all  the  im- 
migration laws  hitherto  enacted,  as  has  been  frequently 
said  before,  is  that  they  are  so  framed  as  to  be  very 
elastic  in  their  interpretation.  The  principal  excluded 
class  at  the  present  time  is  that  of  persons  "  liable  to 
become  public  charges."  This  clause  is  very  elastic.  At 
times  the  law  has  been  enforced  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
exclusions  comparatively  few ;  at  other  times  it  has  been 
more  strictly  enforced.  This  elasticity  would  not  be  such 
a  great  defect  if  one  could  be  sure  that  the  officers 
charged  with  the  administration  of  the  law  were  suf- 
ficiently informed  of  the  labor  conditions  in  the  country 

24  See  55th  Cong.,  S.  2779  introduced  Dec.  14,  1897  by  Senator 
Kyle ;  Charles  Stewart  Smith,  in  North  American  Review,  vol. 
154,  p.  438  (Apr.  1892) ;  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30 
(1904),  p.  70  and  passim. 


Proposed  Legislation  273 

and  the  practical  effects  of  immigration  upon  the  social 
and  political  conditions,  especially  in  the  eastern  part  of 
the  United  States. 

The  theory  of  the  educational  test  is  that  it  furnishes 
an  indirect  method  of  excluding  those  who  are  undesir- 
able, not  merely  because  of  their  illiteracy  but  for  other 
reasons.  We  have  already  seen  25  that  there  is  a  fairly 
constant  relation  between  illiteracy,  the  amount  of  money 
brought  by  the  immigrant,  his  standard  of  living,  his 
tendency  to  crime  and  pauperism,  his  disposition  to 
congregate  in  the  slums  of  cities  instead  of  going  out  to 
settle  new  parts  of  the  country,  and  his  failure  to 
assimilate  politically  and  socially  and  to  have  any  but 
temporary  interests  in  the  country.  Undoubtedly  some 
illiterates  would  make  desirable  citizens  and  undoubtedly 
mere  illiteracy  as  such  can  be  conquered,  in  the  second 
generation  at  all  events,  with  much  labor  and  expense; 
but  the  hereditary  tendencies  of  the  peoples  illiterate 
abroad,  and  especially  of  their  uneducated  classes,  cannot 
be  overcome  in  a  generation  or  two.  While  it  should 
be  clearly  understood  that  it  is  not  claimed  that  ability 
to  read  and  write  is  an  evidence  of  good  moral  character, 
this  test  would,  nevertheless,  practically  operate  to  ex- 
clude a  very  large  part  of  the  immigration  which  is 
destitute  of  resources  either  in  money,  or  still  more,  in 
ability  and  knowledge  of  a  means  to  support  itself; 
which  is  generally  ignorant ;  which  has  criminal  tend- 
encies ;  which  is  averse  to  country  life  and  congregates 
in  our  city  slums ;  which  has  a  low  standard  of  living 
and  little  ambition  to  seek  a  better :  and  which  has  no 
permanent  interests  in  this  country.  Furthermore,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  most  powerful  factor  in  assimilation, 
both  social  and  political,  is  the  ability  to  read,  if  not  in 

25  Chapters  v.,  A,  and  viii.,  A. 


274  Immigration  Legislation 

the  English  language  at  least  in  some  language.26  The 
ability  to  read  and  write  his  own  language  does  not  seem 
an  unreasonable  requirement  to  make  in  the  case  of  one 
seeking  to  enter  a  democracy  like  ours.  At  the  entrance 
to  our  principal  port  at  which  immigrants  arrive,  we  have 
placed  a  statue  of  Liberty  Enlightening  the  World. 
The  statue  carries  in  one  hand  a  torch  and  in  the  other 
a  book ;  and  this,  properly  interpreted,  means  not  merely 
that  immigrants  shall  be  educated  to  a  higher  degree 
after  they  get  here,  but  that  they  should  be  able  to  read 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  land  by  the  light  of  Liberty's 
torch  in  order  to  entitle  them  to  enjoy  the  advantages 
which  Liberty  has  produced. 

The  principal  advantage  of  the  educational  test  is  that 
it  is  a  definite  rule  of  exclusion.  It  is  equally  definite 
for  our  immigrant  inspectors,  for  the  foreign  steamship 
agents  and  for  the  immigrants  themselves.  It  could  and 
would  be  applied  at  the  places  where  tickets  were  bought 
by  the  immigrants,  and  by  the  steamship  companies ; 
therefore,  there  need  be  no  great  change  in  existing  ma- 
chinery, or  any  large  increase  in  consular  service  or  in 
expense.  By  excluding  many  of  the  otherwise  doubtful 
cases,  it  would  relieve  the  boards  of  special  inquiry  and 
would,  to  that  extent,  permit  a  more  thorough  examina- 
tion of  the  remaining  immigrants.  The  certainty  of  the 
test  renders  it  valuable  to  the  immigrant,  for  it  saves  him 
the  hardship  of  making  the  voyage  in  doubt  as  to  his 
admission  or  exclusion.  This  in  itself  does  away,  in 

26  Chapter  viii.,  G. 

"  It  is  conceded  that  less  than  three  per  cent,  of  those  unable 
to  read  and  write  at  the  age  of  sixteen  ever  after  acquire  this 
education.  The  alien  who  has  never  acquired  the  primary  steps 
to  an  education  is  likely  to  acquire  our  language  with  difficulty, 
and  will  not  assimilate  readily  with  our  customs  and  manners." 
Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Immigration,  1892,  p.  19. 


Proposed  Legislation  275 

large  part,  with  the  separation  of  families,  and  with  the 
temptation  to  a  lax  enforcement  of  the  laws  in  order  to 
prevent  such  separation. 

The  mere  expectation  that  the  Lodge  bill  would  be- 
come law  has  already  done  much  to  promote  elementary 
education  in  the  kingdom  of  Italy ; 27  and  it  is  not 
unlikely  that  the  adoption  of  an  educational  test  by  the 
United  States  would  be  followed  by  the  adoption  of 
similar  regulations  in  other  countries,  and  would  stimu- 
late general  education  throughout  the  world.  It  has 
already  been  adopted  in  an  optional  form  in  Australia, 
New  Zealand,  Cape  Colony,  Natal,  and  other  British 
colonies.28 

The  educational  test  has  had  the  most  united  support, 
on  the  part  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  in  this 
country,  ever  given  to  any  immigration  bill,  or,  indeed,  to 
any  bill  of  similar  sociological  importance.  In  the  Fifty- 
seventh  Congress,  the  report  of  the  Senate  Committee  29 
contained  a  list  of  4444  petitions  for  the  educational  test 
presented  to  the  first  session  of  the  Fifty-seventh  Con- 
gress, covering  fifty-seven  pages  of  the  report;  and  a 
further  list  of  endorsements  of  restriction  and  the 
test  covering  fourteen  pages.  Among  these  petitions 
and  endorsements,  were  the  Legislatures  of  three 
States  and  House  of  Representatives  of  a  fourth ; 30  all 
of  the  associations  formed  in  the  northwestern  part  of 
the  country  for  the  promotion  of  immigration  into  that 
section ;  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  by  a  vote 
of  1858  to  352  at  its  national  convention  held  in  Nash- 

27  Report    of    Italian    Commissioner-General    of    Emigration, 
1904.     See  Boston  Evening  Transcript,  Sept.  12,  1904. 

28  See  James  D.  Whelpley,  The  Problem  of  the  Immigrant. 

29  Senate  Documents,  57th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  No.  62  (1902). 

30  California,  Washington,  Wyoming,  Arkansas. 


276  Immigration  Legislation 

ville,  December  17,  1897;  and  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor  in  1896,  1897,  1901.  It  was 
likewise  endorsed  by  the  Republican  national  platform 
of  1896,  by  the  Massachusetts  Republican  platforms  of 
1897  and  1898,  and  in  the  message  of  President  Roose- 
velt, December  3,  1901.  The  Industrial  Commission, 
until  within  a  few  days  of  the  adoption  of  its  final  report, 
was  practically  unanimous  in  favor  of  the  test;  but  at 
the  last  moment  decided,  on  practical  grounds,  not  to 
recommend  it,  although  the  chairman  and  one  other 
member  filed  additional  reports  in  its  favor.  It  was 
recommended  also  by  Superintendent  of  Immigration 
Owen  in  his  report  for  1892 ;  and  by  Commissioner- 
General  Sargent  in  his  report  for  1903.  The  latter 
says: 

"  This  requirement,  whatever  arguments  or  illustra- 
tions may  be  used  to  establish  the  contrary  position,  will 
furnish  alien  residents  of  a  character  less  likely  to  be- 
come burdens  on  public  or  private  charity.  Otherwise  it 
must  follow  that  rudimentary  education  is  a  handicap  in 
the  struggle  for  existence,  a  proposition  that  few  would 
attempt  to  maintain.  It  would  also,  in  a  measure,  relieve 
the  American  people  of  the  burden  now  sustained  by 
them  of  educating  in  the  free  schools  the  ignorant  of 
other  countries."31 

In  1902  about  two-thirds  of  the  Boards  of  Associated 
Charities  of  the  United  States  petitioned  Congress  in 
favor  of  the  Lodge  bill.  The  test  has  also  been  endorsed 
by  the  National  Prison  Reform  Association,  and  by 
about  90  per  cent,  of  the  newspapers  in  the  United  States 
having  editorials  upon  the  immigration  question,  as 
shown  by  clippings  received  by  the  press  bureau  of  the 
Immigration  Restriction  League. 

31  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  I00J, 
p.  61.  Cp.  ibid.,  1904,  p.  1 06;  7905,  p.  76. 


Proposed  Legislation  277 

Dr.  J.  H.  Senner  when  Commissioner  of  Immigration 
at  the  port  of  New  York  favored  an  illiteracy  test,  on 
the  ground  that  illiteracy  is  invariably  coupled  with  a 
low  standard  of  living.32  He  not  merely  favored  the 
test  at  that  time,  but  actually  put  it  in  operation  for 
several  months,  and  reported  that  it  was  easily  applied, 
was  practicable  as  a  method  of  restriction.  It  is  true, 
however,  that  Dr.  Senner,  after  leaving  the  government 
employ  and  becoming  connected  with  the  Immigration 
Protective  League,  changed  his  view,  and  was  most 
vehement  in  his  denunciation  of  the  educational  test. 
In  addition  to  the  usual  argument,  that  it  would  ex- 
clude many  sturdy  though  ignorant  immigrants,  Dr. 
Senner  has  specified33  certain  other  objections  to  the 
plan. 

These  were  that  if  enforced  against  women,  the  test 
would  practically  create  a  still  more  pressing  servant 
problem,  as,  in  general,  more  of  the  women  than  of  the 
men  are  illiterate ;  and  this  would  apply  especially  in  the 
case  of  Italians  who  have  not  as  yet  gone  much  into 
domestic  service,  although  efforts  are  now  being  made 
to  induce  them  to  do  so.  It  may  be  answered  to  this 
objection  that  hitherto  the  class  of  women  going  into 
domestic  service  have  come  chiefly  from  Ireland,  Ger- 
many, Scandinavia,  and  Canada,  and  have  had  a  com- 
paratively small  percentage  of  illiteracy.  Dr.  Senner 
also  considered  that  the  test  would  be  a  discrimination 
in  favor  of  the  affluent,  and  therefore  undemocratic. 
He  likewise  mentioned  the  difficulty  of  enforcing  the 
test  in  the  case  of  cabin  passengers,  and  the  futility 

32  North  American  Review,  vol.  162,  p.  655  (June,  1896)  ;  An- 
nals of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science, 
vol.  10,  p.  15  (July,  1897). 

^Independent,  vol.  50,  p.  78  (Jan.  20,  1898). 


278  Immigration  Legislation 

of  it  if  it  were  not  enforced  against  cabin  passengers. 
We  have  seen,  however,  that  since  Dr.  Senner  wrote, 
the  immigration  laws  have  in  practice  been  applied  to 
cabin  passengers  without  any  serious  difficulty  and  the 
illiteracy  test  would  not  increase  the  difficulty  appre- 
ciably. Dr.  Senner  further  alleged  that  an  examination 
as  to  reading  and  writing  would  deter  the  Germans  from 
emigrating,  although  owing  to  the  small  percentage  of 
illiteracy  among  them,  they  could  practically  all  pass  the 
test.  He  does  not,  however,  allege  that  German  immi- 
gration fell  off  owing  to  his  putting  of  the  illiteracy  test 
in  force  for  some  months  at  Ellis  Island,  and  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  see  why  one  item  out  of  many  in  the  examination 
should  deter  anybody  who  is  certain  of  passing  such  a 
test  from  emigrating.  While  it  is  true  that  many  of 
the  Germans  are  opposed  to  the  educational  test  on 
principle,  the  theory  that  it  would  deter  German  immi- 
gration must  be  considered  a  figment  of  the  imagination. 
Another  objection  made  to  the  test  is,  that  it  would 
soon  cease  to  operate  as  against  certain  races  owing  to 
the  spread  of  education.  Admitting  this  to  be  so,  it  is 
obvious  that  there  will  be  for  many  years  illiterate  in- 
dividuals of  many  races;  and  with  increasing  immigra- 
tion from  Asia  and  Africa,  this  safeguard  is  needed  in 
the  immediate  future.  Just  how  far  the  test  would  cut 
down  the  volume  of  immigration  is  a  question.  It  was 
estimated  that  the  bill  which  President  Cleveland  vetoed 
would  have  cut  down  immigration  from  fifteen  to  twenty 
per  cent.  In  other  words,  the  exceptions  made  in  the 
bill  would  have  admitted  from  one-quarter  to  two-fifths 
of  the  illiterates  over  fourteen  years  of  age,  reckoning 
the  total  illiteracy  of  such  persons  at  twenty-five  per  cent. 
It  is  possible  that  the  effect  of  the  act  might  be  much 
less  than  this  after  a  year  or  two;  for,  if  the  steamship 


Proposed  Legislation  279 

companies  should  be  prevented  from  bringing  illiterates, 
they  would  immediately  try  to  secure  emigrants  who 
could  read.  However  this  may  be,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  quality  of  immigration  would  be  much  improved 
by  such  a  selection. 

An  objection  frequently  made  to  the  educational  test 
is,  that  it  would  not  shut  out  criminals,  many  of  whom 
are  well  educated.  In  answer  to  this,  it  may  be  said  that 
criminals  are  already  excluded  by  law,  and  the  illiteracy 
test  is  to  be  added  to  the  existing  provisions  of  law,  and 
is  not  to  be  a  substitute  for  any  of  them.  It  has  always 
seemed  to  the  writer  that  a  few  intelligent  criminals  or 
anarchists  were  far  less  detrimental  to  the  country  than 
large  numbers  of  men  too  ignorant  to  see  through  their 
arguments,  and  forming  inflammable  material  which  can 
be  easily  kindled  into  the  flame  of  disorder.34  Moreover, 
it  is  not  true  that  the  test  would  be  valueless  as  against 
criminals.  The  census  of  1890  showed  that  nearly  21 
per  cent,  of  the  foreign-born  criminals  were  illiterate, 
and  that  the  illiteracy  of  the  foreign-born  white  criminals 
in  1890  was  double  that  of  the  native-born  white  crim- 
inals. These  foreign  undesirables,  and,  what  is  more 
important,  their  children,  would  not  now  be  here  to  any 
extent  if  an  educational  test  had  been  in  force  for  the 
last  forty  years.35 

34  In  favor  of  this  view,  see  Lecture  Bulletin  of  the  Institute 
of  Social  Economics  (Nov.  I,  1901),  p.  85;  Charles  Stewart 
Smith  in  North  American  Review,  vol.  154,  p.  437  (Apr.  1892)  ; 
John  Chetwood,  Jr.,  in  Arena,  vol.  17,  p.  790  (Dec.  1897). 
Secretary  of  War  Taft  says  in  the  Churchman  of  Oct.  I,  1904, 
that  this  is  true  in  the  Philippines.  See  contra,  on  the  ground 
that  the  ignorant  do  not  read  socialistic  literature,  Dr.  Allan 
McLaughlin,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  66,  p.  245  (Jan. 


35  Cp.  speech  of  Senator  Fairbanks  in  the  Senate,  January  1  1, 
1898. 


280  Immigration  Legislation 

In  any  legislation  embodying  the  educational  test  it 
would  probably  be  found  advisable  to  exempt  citizens  of 
Canada,  Newfoundland,  and  Mexico,  and,  perhaps,  bona 
fide  residents  of  those  countries  for  a  year  or  some  other 
period  before  entry ;  otherwise  the  test  is  likely  to  stir 
up  considerable  opposition  among  the  railroads  crossing 
the  borders,  who  do  not  want  their  Canadian  business 
interfered  with.  It  would  probably  also  be  found  neces- 
sary to  forbid  the  entrance  of  aliens  from  foreign 
contiguous  territory  except  at  certain  specified  ports  of 
entry,  because  it  is  obviously  impracticable  to  have  the 
machinery  for  examinations  at  every  point  of  crossing. 
Both  these  features  were  discussed  in  connection  with 
the  bill  as  it  passed  the  House  in  the  Fifty-seventh 
Congress,  and  considered  to  be  desirable.  It  was 
claimed  by  the  International  Navigation  Company  and 
others  that  the  former  provision,  as  well  as  the  similar 
provision  as  to  the  head-tax  in  the  existing  law,  violated 
all  treaties  with  foreign  nations  granting  their  citizens 
as  favorable  treatment  as  citizens  of  any  other  nation. 
The  State  Department,  however,  thought  differently; 
and,  as  no  trouble  has  arisen  with  the  existing  law  in 
respect  to  the  head-tax,  it  would  doubtless  not  arise  with 
regard  to  an  educational  test. 


D.     CONSULAR  INSPECTION 

Of  the  various  plans  for  further  regulation  of  immi- 
gration, the  plan  known  as  "  consular  inspection  "  has, 
perhaps,  until  recently,  been  the  most  popular.  This 
plan  contemplates  the  examination  of  each  alien  at  the 
port  of  embarkation  by  American  consular  officers.  On 
its  face  it  appeals  to  common  sense.  It  would  seem,  at 
first  sight,  that  more  knowledge  can  be  obtained  of  an 


Proposed  Legislation  281 

immigrant's  antecedents,  habits,  and  character  in  the 
country  of  his  birth  or  residence  than  in  the  United 
States.  Then,  too,  the  fact  that  rejection  in  a  foreign 
country  saves  the  immigrant  the  hardship  of  the  voyage 
and  the  uncertainty  whether  he  will  be  admitted,  and 
whether  he  will  be  separated  from  his  family  or  friends, 
appeals  to  our  sympathy. 

Schemes  for  consular  inspection  may  be  divided  into 
two  classes  and  in  two  ways.  The  examination  may  be 
voluntary,  as  a  result  of  an  application  by  the  alien,  and 
in  this  case  the  consular  inspection  is  auxiliary  to  the 
inspection  in  this  country;  or,  the  inspection  may  be  in- 
voluntary. That  is,  it  may  be  prescribed  for  all  aliens 
intending  to  come  to  this  country,  and  may  be  either 
auxiliary  to  the  existing  inspection  or  may  be  a  substi- 
tute for  it.  Both  of  these  plans  were  frequently  before 
Congress  during  the  ten  years  prior  to  1895  and  received 
a  large  measure  of  public  support.36 

Consular  inspection  was  the  most  popular  plan  for 
further  restriction  until  the  educational  test  was  brought 
forward.  One  of  the  most  zealous  advocates  was  Hon. 
William  A.  Stone  of  Pennsylvania,  a  Congressman  from 
this  State  and  afterwards  its  Governor.  The  bill  advo- 
cated by  him37  provided  that  no  immigrant  should  be 
admitted  unless  he  could  exhibit  at  the  port  of  arrival 
a  certificate,  signed  by  the  United  States  consul  or 
authorized  representative  of  the  United  States  at  the 
place  nearest  where  he  last  resided,  setting  forth  that 
he  did  not  belong  to  the  excluded  classes.  The  immi- 
grant, in  addition  to  obtaining  this  certificate,  was 
required  to  conform  to  all  the  existing  requirements  of 

36  See   Sen.   H.   C.   Hansbrough,  in  North  American  Review, 
vol.  156,  p.  224  (Feb.  1893). 

37  53d  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  H.  R.  5246;  54th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  H. 
R.    & 


282  Immigration  Legislation 

the  law ;  that  is  to  say,  the  Stone  bill  was  auxiliary  to  the 
existing  system  and  not  a  substitution.  It  provided  that 
the  State  Department  should  make  rules  and  regulations 
to  carry  the  act  into  effect,  and  the  details  were,  there- 
fore, not  incorporated  in  the  statute.  This  act  passed 
the  House  of  Representatives  July  20,  1894.  Mr.  Stone 
also  introduced  another  bill  into  the  same  Congress,38 
setting  forth  more  in  detail  the  method  which  he  would 
employ  to  restrict  immigration  by  means  of  consular 
inspection.39  Under  this  bill,  an  alien  desiring  to 
migrate  to  the  United  States  was  to  swear  to  an  applica- 
tion giving  the  reason  of  his  desire  to  migrate,  his  trade, 
age,  state  of  health,  and  statement  of  property.  The 
applicant  was  also  to  file  a  passport  of  recent  date  from 
his  native  government  granting  permission  to  migrate, 
and  a  certificate  from  the  chief  officer  of  police  of  the 
place  where  he  resided  certifying  that  he  had  not  been 
under  charge  of  crime  or  violation  of  the  law  for  five 
years. 

The  representative  was  then  to  fix  a  day  for  hear- 
ing within  thirty  days  from  the  receipt  of  the  ap- 
plication, and  notice  of  such  hearing  was  to  be  sent  to 
the  government  of  the  applicant's  country  and  to  the 
chief  officer  of  police.  The  consul  was  to  subpoena  and 
examine  such  witnesses  as  were  necessary  to  determine 
whether  the  application  was  true  and  whether  the 
applicant  was  a  fit  subject  to  become  a  citizen  and 
resident  of  the  United  States.  If  he  found  him  to  be 
such  a  person,  he  was  then,  on  payment  of  $20,  to  issue 
a  permit  enabling  the  applicant  to  sail  within  four 
months ;  but  if  it  appeared  that  the  emigrant  was  one  of 

s8  H.  R.  243. 

39  It  may  be  noted  in  passing  that  this  purports  in  its  title 
to  be  a  bill  "  to  restrict  immigration  "  and  not  merely  to  provide 
a  substitute  or  auxiliary  method  of  inspection. 


Proposed  Legislation  283 

the  excluded  classes,  or,  being  over  sixteen  years  of 
age,  could  not  read  and  write  his  own  language,  or  if 
the  government  having  jurisdiction  over  him  objected 
to  his  leaving,  or  if  he  were  a  bad  character  or  over  a 
certain  age,  the  permit  was  to  be  refused.  Upon  arrival 
at  a  port  of  the  United  States,  immigrants  with  permits 
were  to  be  allowed  to  land.  The  immigrants  who  had 
obtained  their  permits  through  fraud  or  were  unable  to 
produce  them  were  to  be  returned  to  the  port  whence 
they  came.  Any  officer  of  a  steamship  receiving  im- 
migrants without  permits  in  a  foreign  port  was  to  be 
liable  to  prosecution,  and  any  immigrant  coming  to  this 
country  without  such  a  permit  could  be  arrested  at  any 
time  within  five  years  and  returned  to  his  own  country 
by  order  of  a  United  States  court.  Various  other  bills 
were  introduced  at  about  the  same  time40  containing 
schemes  for  consular  inspection,  more  or  less  similar. 
One  of  them  required  that  the  application  for  the  permit 
should  be  accompanied  by  a  photograph.41  A  bill  intro- 
duced by  Senator  Chandler,  provided  for  consular 
certificates,  but  these  were  to  be  merely  evidence  taken 
in  connection  with  other  facts  at  the  port  of  arrival,  and 
were  not  to  be  conclusive  as  to  the  right  of  the  immigrant 
to  land.42  Another  suggestion  required  a  consular  cer- 
tificate of  the  ability  of  the  immigrant  to  read  and 
write.43 

40  e.  g.  52d  Congress,  H.  R.  32  by  Mr.  Geary ;  H.  R.  575  by 
Mr.   Lodge;   H.   R.  9,104  by  Mr.   Beltzhoover;   S.   134  by  Mr. 
Chandler;   S.  357  by  Mr.   Puffer. 

41  Cp.  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30,  p.  22  (1904). 

42  Cp.   S.  2543  introduced  by  Mr.  Washburn  providing  for  a 
declaration  by  aliens  before  consuls  stating  certain  information, 
and  for  a  perliminary  inspection  in  foreign  countries. 

43  55th  Congress,  S.  2779,  introduced  Dec.  14,  1897  by  Senator 
Kyle.     Cp.  Charles  Stewart  Smith,  in  North  American  Review, 
vol.  154,  p.  348  (Apr.  1892). 


284  Immigration  Legislation 

One  of  the  principal  arguments  in  favor  of  consular 
inspection  is,  as  has  been  said,  that  under  our  present 
system,  the  immigrant's  own  word  has  to  be  taken  for 
most  of  the  questions  asked  upon  the  manifest ;  and  it  is 
assumed  that  consuls  in  Europe  will  have  better  oppor- 
tunities for  ascertaining  the  facts  in  regard  to  an  im- 
migrant's character  and  circumstances. 

Attractive  as  the  plan  is  at  first  sight,  a  more  careful 
study  discloses  defects  which  are  practically  fatal  to 
successful  operation;  and  on  account  of  these  defects 
consular  inspection  has  gradually  been  dropped  by  the 
careful  students  of  the  immigration  question.44  The 
objections  to  the  plan  may  be  summed  up  as  follows: 
(i)  It  would  necessitate  a  large  increase  in  the  consular 
force  and  consequent  expense.  Not  very  long  ago  there 
were  only  three  consuls  of  the  United  States  in  the  whole 
of  Russia.  Considering  its  size  it  is  apparent  that  it 
would  be  absolutely  impossible  to  supervise  emigration 
from  such  a  country,  or  indeed  from  any  European 
country,  without  a  very  large  increase  in  the  consular 
force,  and  that  unless  the  consuls  were  widely  scattered 
none  of  them  would  be  near  enough  the  emigrant's  place 

44  Mr.  Broughton  Brandenburg,  however,  favors  examination 
before  boards  of  American  officials  in  foreign  countries.  See 
Imported  Americans,  chapter  xxii.  The  plan  is  to  have  these 
boards  visit  the  districts  from  which  immigrants  come  and  grant 
to  each  admissible  person  a  certificate,  containing  a  photograph 
or  other  identification,  entitling  him  to  admission  to  the  United 
States  within  thirty  days  from  issue.  The  successful  operation 
of  the  plan  would  depend  upon  the  honesty  and  efficiency  of 
boards  operating  at  long  distances  from  the  United  States.  The 
principal  advantage,  if  foreign  governments  would  permit  it, 
would  be  the  opportunity  to  obtain  information  as  to  immigrants 
in  their  own  homes.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  most  of  the  con- 
suls themselves  are  heartily  in  favor  of  the  plan  of  consular 
inspection.  See  Special  Consular  Reports,  voL  30  ( 1904) ,  passim. 


Proposed  Legislation  285 

of  residence  to  have  any  special  facility  in  obtaining  in- 
formation about  him.  (2)  The  consuls  themselves  would 
not  have,  in  addition  to  their  other  duties,  the  time  to  ex- 
amine the  large  numbers  embarking  at  once,  and  the 
result  would  practically  be  that  the  inspection  would  be 
done  by  clerks,  probably  natives,  who  would  generally 
sympathize  with  the  emigrants ;  and,  in  any  case,  it  would 
be  less  efficient  and  responsible  and  more  open  to  corrup- 
tion than  that  of  inspectors  at  the  ports  of  the  United 
States.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  said  that  the  writer 
has  frequently  seen  manifests  sworn  to  in  blank  before 
American  consuls,  although  the  intention  of  the  law  was 
that  the  filled-in  statement  alone  should  be  sworn  to. 
If  such  irregularity  is  possible  in  a  simple  matter  like 
the  swearing  to  a  manifest,  how  much  more  irregularity 
would  there  be  with  a  system  as  complicated  as  that  of 
immigration  inspection  in  a  country  thousands  of  miles 
from  the  United  States,  and  with  no  possibility  of  public 
supervision  or  private  watching?  (3)  If  the  certificate 
is  to  be  conclusive,  the  elaborate  machinery  for  inspection 
at  American  ports  must  still  be  maintained  in  order  to 
detect  and  deport  those  arriving  without  proper  certifi- 
cates; yet  these  will  be  so  few  in  comparison  with  the 
whole  number  that  most  of  this  enormously  expensive 
plant  would  be  rendered  useless.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
certificates  are  not  to  be  conclusive,  then  the  system  is 
open  to  the  most  serious  defect  of  all,  namely,  that  it 
divides  the  responsibility  between  the  consul  and  the 
inspector  at  the  American  port.  In  doubtful  cases  each 
of  these  would  throw  the  responsibility  upon  the  other 
and  the  immigrant  would  be  allowed  to  enter ;  or  if  the 
inspection  is  still  to  be  maintained  in  full  vigor  at  all 
ports  there  is  a  certain  hardship  to  the  immigrant  if  he 
complies  with  all  the  requirements  of  consular  inspection 


286  Immigration  Legislation 

and  still  is  not  allowed  to  land.  (4)  Consular  inspection 
as  such  does  not  add  to  the  excluded  classes,  and  there- 
fore does  not  meet  the  most  serious  defect  in  the  present 
law,  namely,  its  failure  to  exclude  paupers,  diseased 
persons  and  other  objectionable  aliens.  (5)  It  does  not 
draw  any  line  of  exclusion  more  definite  than  the  exist- 
ing law,  but,  as  above  suggested,  it  vests  an  enormous 
discretion  in  officials  far  removed  from  oversight  and 
control.  (6)  Consular  inspection  must  either  be  public 
or  secret.  The  foreign  governments  would  not  tolerate 
the  introduction  of  secret  extra-territorial  courts  such  as 
these  consular  offices  would  be.  But  if  consular  inspec- 
tion were  public  the  foreign  governments  would  use 
every  effort  to  keep  at  home  strong  and  healthy  citizens 
fit  for  military  service,  and  to  assist  in  the  emigration 
of  those  members  of  the  community  whom  they  desired 
to  be  rid  of.  (7)  It  is  a  fallacious  assumption  that 
consuls  are  in  most  cases  any  better  able  to  ascertain  the 
truth  of  the  immigrant's  statements  than  inspectors  at 
our  ports.  Take  the  case  of  an  emigrant  who  comes 
overland  three  or  four  thousand  miles  to  embark  from  a 
Russian  port.  What  possible  means  can  the  consul  have 
to  ascertain  the  truth  of  the  evidence  which  the  emi- 
grant presents?  and  the  same  might  be  true  of  an 
emigrant  from  the  same  town  in  which  the  consul  re- 
sided, for  it  might  require  a  long  and  expensive  investi- 
gation to  disprove  the  emigrant's  story  even  in  the  latter 
case.  Furthermore,  there  are  certain  matters  which,  in 
the  nature  of  the  case,  a  consul  at  the  port  of  embarka- 
tion cannot  know  as  well  as  the  inspectors  here.  One  of 
these  is  the  existence  of  a  disease  which  has  not  de- 
veloped at  the  time  when  the  emigrant  applies  for  his 
consular  certificate,  but  which  does  develop  during  the 
voyage  to  this  country.  Another  such  fact  is  the  ex- 


Proposed  Legislation  287 

istence  of  friends  or  relatives  in  the  United  States  able 
and  willing  to  support  him  or  to  find  him  work.  The 
same  thing  applies  to  the  conditions  which  render  the 
immigrant  liable  to  exclusion  as  a  contract  laborer.  In- 
deed, under  a  system  of  consular  inspection  the  only  kind 
of  contract  which  could  be  reached  or  would  furnish  a 
basis  for  excluding  an  immigrant  would  be  a  bi-lateral 
contract  made  before  the  immigrant  presented  himself 
at  the  consul's  office. 

The  difficulty  of  inspection  in  a  foreign  country  has 
been  often  pointed  out,43  and  is  conclusively  shown  by 
the  experience  which  the  United  States  has  already  had 
with  the  system  as  applied  to  Chinese  persons.  The 
report  of  the  Commissioner-General  for  I9O3,46  states 
that  consular  examination  is  practically  of  no  value ; 
that  the  holders  of  certificates  given  by  the  consul  deny 
the  statements  made  therein  and  in  other  ways  show  that 
the  law  in  regard  to  these  particulars  is  complied  with 
in  a  purely  perfunctory  way. 

The  chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Immigra- 
tion, in  the  Fifty-fourth  Congress,  Hon.  H.  C.  Lodge, 
in  speaking  of  consular  inspection  in  the  Senate,  March 
16,  1896,  used  the  following  language: 

"  This  plan  has  been  much  advocated,  and  if  it  were 
possible  to  carry  it  out  thoroughly  and  to  add  very 

45  See  Hon.  John  B.  Webber,  formerly  Commissioner  of  Immi- 
gration at  New  York,  in  North  American  Review,  vol.  154,  pp. 
424-431   (Apr.   1892)  ;   Gustave  H.  Schwab,  agent  of  the  North 
German  Lloyd   Steamship   Company,   in  Forum,  vol.    14,  p.  808 
(Feb.  1893)  ;  Hon.  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  for  several  years  chair- 
man of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Immigration,  in  Century,  vol. 
67,    p.    468    (Jan.    1904)  ;  J.  J.  D.  Trenor,    in    Annals    of    the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  vol.  24,  p. 
224   (July,   1904). 

46  P.    I08. 


288  Immigration  Legislation 

largely  to  the  number  of  our  consuls  in  order  to  do  so, 
it  would  no  doubt  be  effective  and  beneficial.  But  the 
committee  was  satisfied  that  consular  certification  was, 
under  existing  circumstances,  impractical ;  that  the 
necessary  machinery  could  not  be  provided ;  that  it  would 
lead  to  many  serious  questions  with  foreign  governments ; 
that  it  could  not  be  properly  and  justly  enforced,  and  that 
it  would  take  a  long  time  to  put  it  in  operation.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  go  further  into  the  details  which  brought 
the  committee  to  this  conclusion.  It  is  sufficient  to  say 
here  that  the  opinion  of  the  committee  is  shared,  nay  be- 
lieved, by  all  expert  judges  who  have  given  the  most 
careful  attention  to  this  question." 


E.      OTHER  METHODS47 

In  addition  to  the  methods  of  restriction  already  dis- 
cussed, certain  others  have  been  proposed  which  have 
not  received  as  general  support,  but  which  should  be 
mentioned,  in  order  to  give  a  complete  view  of  the 
subject. 

Total  suspension  of  immigration.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  until  the  immigration  already  here  is  com- 
pletely assimilated,  all  immigration  should  be  stopped  for 
a  certain  period.  This  proposal  is  usually  made  by  ex- 
tremists. A  bill  to  stop  immigration  for  one  year  was 
introduced  into  the  52d  Congress,  and  one  to  suspend 
the  coming  of  alien  laborers  for  five  years,  into  the  53d 
Congress ;  but  the  plan  has  never  been  seriously  consid- 
ered except  in  connection  with  quarantine  against  foreign 
epidemics. 

Exclusion  of  certain  races.  It  has  sometimes 
been  said  that  the  arguments  which  have  been  used 

47  This  division  is  based  largely  upon  the  bills  introduced  into 
the  5ist,  52d,  and  53d  Congresses  not  covered  by  preceding  divis- 
ions of  this  chapter  or  by  subsequent  legislation. 


Proposed  Legislation  289 

to  defend  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Acts  logically  apply  to 
certain  other  races,  like  the  Japanese.  It  is  urged  that 
race  is,  after  all,  the  fundamental  test  of  desirability,  and 
that  the  only  straightforward  way  to  restrict  immigration 
is  to  specify  certain  nationalities  or  races  of  Europe  and 
Asia  who  should  be  excluded  for  a  period  of  years  or  for 
all  time.48  The  objection  to  this  plan  is  that  no  Euro- 
pean nation  would  be  willing  to  be  put  upon  such  a  foot- 
ing, and  would  bitterly  resent  any  attempt  at  proscrip- 
tion. For  diplomatic  reasons,  therefore,  the  scheme  is 
impracticable.49 

Limitation  of  numbers.  Instead  of  stopping  all  immi- 
gration for  a  period  of  time  or  excluding  certain  races 
altogether,  a  sort  of  combination  of  these  methods  has 
been  advocated,  namely,  limiting  the  number  of  aliens 
who  may  enter  from  any  one  country  in  any  year.  The 
principal  supporter  of  this  plan  has  been  Hon.  Robert 
Adams,  Jr.,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  introduced  a  bill  into 
the  58th  Congress  to  carry  out  this  idea.50  This  bill 
provided  that  it  should  be  unlawful  for  more  than  eighty 
thousand  aliens  from  any  one  nation  to  enter  the  United 
States  during  any  fiscal  year,  with  the  exception  of  repre- 
sentatives of  foreign  commercial  houses  and  foreign  gov- 
ernments. After  the  full  quota  from  any  nation  was  ad- 
mitted in  any  fiscal  year,  all  other  citizens  or  subjects  of 
such  nation  were  to  be  refused  admission  and  returned  as 
provided  by  law  in  the  case  of  other  inadmissible  aliens. 
In  theory  this  suggestion  is  not  without  merit.  Prac- 
tically it  contained  serious  defects.  For  example,  one 

48  See  Edward  F.  McSweeney,  formerly  assistant  Commissioner 
at  New  York,  in  Donahoe's  Magazine,  vol.  35,  p.  132  (Feb.  1896). 

49 Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration.  1902, 
p.  60. 

50  H.  R.  12906,  introduced  Feb.  24,  1904. 


290  Immigration  Legislation 

can  imagine  that  the  same  unfortunate  condition  would 
arise  at  the  beginning  of  each  fiscal  year  which  takes 
place  when  a  new  Indian  reservation  is  opened  for  settle- 
ment, so  that  aliens  would  come,  crowding  ships  to  their 
utmost  capacity,  and  using  every  tramp  steamer  in  order 
to  be  in  time  to  be  admitted.  The  result  would  be  that 
the  inspection  service  would  be  absolutely  swamped,  and 
great  hardship  would  result  through  the  detention  of 
aliens  for  examination  and  the  return  of  those  whom  the 
event  showed  had  arrived  too  late.  There  is  also  the 
difficulty  that,  inasmuch  as  people  of  one  race  come  from 
various  countries,  there  would  be  a  great  deal  of  fraud 
attempted,  in  order  to  make  out  that  the  alien  was  the 
subject  of  a  country  which  had  not,  at  the  time  of  his  ap- 
plication for  admission,  reached  its  quota  of  80,000  per- 
sons. Furthermore,  the  coming  of  such  a  large  number 
of  aliens  at  one  time,  even  if  it  were  provided  that  a 
certain  number  only  should  arrive  in  each  month,  would 
disorganize  the  labor  market  and  throw  out  of  employ- 
ment many  already  here.  All  the  economic  evils 
of  present  immigration  would  be  intensified  through  com- 
pressing arrivals  into  a  few  short  periods  of  time. 

A  more  hopeful  suggestion  to  limit  numbers  is  that 
which  follows  the  precedent  of  the  laws  originally  de- 
signed to  protect  immigrants,  by  obliging  transportation 
companies  to  furnish  sanitary  accommodations  during  the 
voyage.51  For  example,  it  has  been  suggested  that  the 
present  requirement  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  cubic 
feet  of  air  space  for  each  passenger  carried  below  the 
upper  decks  should  be  changed  to  two  hundred  or  three 
hundred  feet.  This  would  reduce  the  number  of  steerage 
passengers  which  could  be  brought  on  existing  vessels. 
It  has  also  been  suggested  that  the  number  of  immi- 
61  Supra,  chapter  x.,  A. 


Proposed  Legislation  291 

grants  which  any  vessel  may  bring-  should  be  limited  to 
100,  500,  or  1000  on  each  voyage.52  This  would  be  a 
practical  restriction  upon  immigration,  as  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  profit  from  immigration  business  comes 
from  the  use  of  very  large  steamers  carrying  several 
thousand  persons.  On  this  account,  any  such  proposal 
would  meet  with  the  bitter  opposition  of  the  transporta- 
tion interests ;  and  it  is  also  open  to  serious  difficulty  in 
respect  to  immigration  coming  in  through  Canada  or 
Mexico,  as  it  would  be  impracticable  to  apply  the  law  to 
vessels  arriving  at  Canadian  ports.  And  unless  some 
method  were  found  covering  this  difficulty  it  would  simply 
result  in  immigration  being  diverted  to  Canadian  ports 
and  coming  in  over  the  border. 

Additions  to  the  excluded  classes.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  the  following  be  added  to  the  excluded 
classes : 

(a)  Socialists. 

(b)  All  immigrants,  or  at  least  all  manual  laborers, 
who     do     not     at     once     declare     their    intention     to 
become  citizens.     It  may  be  noted  in  passing  that  propo- 
sitions of  this  sort  conflict  with  the  proposition  to  extend 
the  period  of  deportation ;  for  the  former  appears  to  con- 
template an  immediate  political  assimilation,  while  the 
latter   forbids  this  and  substitutes  a  definite  period  of 
probation.     It  may  seriously  be  questioned  whether  the 
additional  grip  upon  the  alien  supposed  to  be  given  by 
obliging  him  to  take  out  his  first  papers  is  of  any  especial 
value,  or  of  as  much  value  as  the  power  to  deport  him  if 
he  becomes  a  burden  upon   the   community.     Further- 
more, it  is  obvious  that  there  must  always  be  large  num- 
bers of  aliens  travelling  for  business  or  pleasure,  and  to 

5-  S.  L.  Baldwin,  in  Independent,  vol.  45,  p.  1472  (Nov.  2, 
1893). 


292  Immigration  Legislation 

adopt  this  provision  would  involve  reviving  the  trouble- 
some distinction  between  "  immigrants  "  and  "  alien  pas- 
sengers." 

(c)  Persons  of  bad  character.  This  suggestion  is 
usually  put  in  the  affirmative  form,  that  the  alien  must 
produce  some  evidence  of  good  moral  character  or  rep- 
utation. Much  that  has  been  said  about  the  value  of  the 
evidence  under  consular  inspection  abroad  applies  to  facts 
of  this  kind.  So  far  as  it  rests  upon  testimonials  of  fel- 
low citizens  of  the  alien,  there  is  no  means  of  verifying 
it  or  of  detecting  forgeries  and  frauds.  In  some  foreign 
countries,  like  Italy,  the  police  give  certificates  of  char- 
acter, and  it  was  suggested  by  Commissioner-General 
Stump  in  1894  that  aliens  from  countries  granting  such 
certificates  be  required  to  produce  them  upon  arrival. 
A  bill  was  introduced  into  the  Fifty-second  Congress  re- 
quiring every  alien  to  produce  a  passport  from  his  native 
government  and  a  certificate  from  the  police  of  his  native 
town  that  he  had  not  been  charged  with  crime  within 
five  years.  In  the  Fifty-first  Congress  it  was  proposed 
to  require  a  passport  giving  full  information  about  the 
alien  which  should  be  vised  by  a  representative  of  the 
United  States  abroad.  The  trouble  with  both  of  these 
plans  is  that  they  would  tend  to  lower  the  quality  of 
immigration  by  diverting  the  better  elements  to  other 
countries ;  for  it  is  in  the  interest  of  the  foreign  countries 
to  keep  at  home  the  strong,  healthy  and  industrious  citi- 
zens for  military  service,  and  to  let  go  only  those  who  are 
undesirable.53  As  respects  the  latter  plan,  it  has  most  of 
the  defects  of  the  consular  inspection  scheme,  and  too 
much  weight  might  be  given  to  the  proposed  certificates. 

53  Cp.  Charles  Stewart  Smith,  in  North  American  Review,  vol. 
154,  p.  437  (Apr.  1892)  ;  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30 
(1904),  passim. 


Proposed  Legislation  293 

When  we  consider  the  ingenuity  displayed  by  aliens  in 
fraudulently  entering  this  country  and  in  fraudulently 
securing  citizenship  papers,  it  seems  that  the  only  safe 
reliance  is  on  inspection  and  testing  of  the  individual, 
and  not  on  certificates  of  any  kind.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
clear  that  our  present  law  excluding  convicts  is  not  suffi- 
cient, and  that  the  criminal  record  of  aliens  in  this  coun- 
try justifies  every  effort  to  exclude  persons  of  bad  char- 
acter.54 

(d)  "Birds   of   passage."     In    the    Fifty-third    Con- 
gress bills  were  introduced  making  it  unlawful  for  any 
alien  to  labor  in  this  country  while  retaining  his  home  in 
a  foreign  country,  or  to  come  in  to  perform  daily  service 
in  this  country.     Bills  of  this  character  have  aimed  chiefly 
at  Canadians,  who  come  into  the  United  States  to  labor 
for  a  part  of  the  year,  or  who  come  across  the  border 
during  the  day,  returning  at  night.     At  any  rate,  it  is 
difficult  to  draw  a  bill  affecting  birds  of  passage  which 
would  not  affect  this  class.     But  measures  of  such  a  char- 
acter are  bound  to  produce  great  friction  with  Canada. 
The  so-called  "  Corliss  Amendment "  to  the  "  Lodge  Edu- 
cational Test  bill "  in  the  Fifty- fourth  Congress  was  in- 
troduced because  of  the  agitation  of  certain  labor  unions 
in   Detroit   who   were   adversely   affected   by   Canadian 
labor ;  and,  as  was  said  above,  the  Lodge  bill  as  amended, 
was  vetoed  by  President  Cleveland  largely  on  account  of 
the  danger  of  international  complications  introduced  by 
this  amendment. 

(e)  Persons  without  families.     The  Immigration  In- 
vestigating Commission  in  1895  55  advocated  the  plan  of 
admitting  persons  having   families   abroad  only  condi- 

54  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1903, 
p.  61. 
•"'•"'. Report,  p.  45. 


294  Immigration  Legislation 

tionally  until  the  families  were  brought  over.  This  was 
on  the  theory  of  diminishing  the  numbers  of  the  "  birds 
of  passage,"  by  giving  the  immigrant  a  settled  home 
here. 

(f)  Aged  persons.  The  Commissioner-General56  has 
recommended  the  adoption  of  an  age  limit,  for  example, 
sixty  years,  and  the  exclusion  of  persons  over  this  age  un- 
less they  have  children  able  to  provide  for  them.  While 
it  is  true  that  aged  persons  are  the  more  likely  to  become 
public  charges,  it  is  also  true  that  only  about  five  per 
cent,  of  the  total  immigration  is  over  forty-five  years  of 
age  and  probably  but  a  small  fraction  of  one  per  cent, 
is  over  sixty  years.  The  number  of  these  aged  persons 
is,  therefore,  in  any  case  very  small.  It  is  also  true  that 
in  few  cases  would  they  have  any  children  after  landing. 
Hence,  whatever  objectionable  hereditary  influence  they 
might  have  would  be  shown  only  in  their  sending  for 
children  or  grandchildren  from  abroad. 

Mental  test.  Some  who  have  objected  to  the  educa- 
tional test,  on  the  ground  that  it  shows  merely  a  capacity 
to  acquire  a  small  amount  of  education  in  a  particular 
direction  and  is  not  a  fair  test  of  mental  ability,  have  sug- 
gested that  other  methods  might  be  devised  for  ascer- 
taining the  mental  development  of  the  alien.57  In  other 
words,  it  is  claimed  that  many  persons  have  strong  men- 
tal ability  who  have  not  had  an  opportunity  to  acquire 
the  art  of  reading  and  writing.  It  is  possible  that  some- 
thing might  be  accomplished  along  this  line.  The  ob- 
vious objection  is  the  amount  of  time  required  to  make 
such  tests. 

Extending  the  period  of  deportation.     Many  people 

66  Report,    1903,    p.    84.    Cp.    New    York    Board    of    Trade, 
Charities,  vol.  12,  p.  136  (Feb.  6,  1904). 
"Gustave  Michaud,  in  Century,  vol.  76,  p.  689  (March,  1903). 


Proposed  Legislation  295 

who  object  to  any  further  measures  of  exclusion  are  quite 
willing  that  aliens  should  be  deported  who  prove  to  be 
objectionable  after  a  fair  trial;  in  other  words,  that  im- 
migrants should  pass  through  a  probationary  period. 
For  example,  it  has  been  proposed  to  extend  the  period 
within  which  public  charges  may  be  deported  to  five 
years.58  Similar  suggestions  have  also  been  made  in  re- 
gard to  those  becoming  insane  within  a  year  after  land- 
ing from  causes  subsequent  thereto.59  Mr.  Gustav  H. 
Schwab,  himself  a  steamship  man  has  said :  "  The 
steamship  companies  should  be  obliged  to  return  such 
immigrants  at  any  time  within  such  period  as  may  seem 
proper  to  protect  our  poor-houses,  insane-asylums  and 
other  institutions."  60 


G.    ADMINISTRATIVE  AMENDMENTS 

The  defects  in  the  existing  law  which  were  pointed  out 
in  the  last  chapter  suggest  certain  respects  in  which  im- 
provements could  be  made  in  administration.  Given 
executive  officials  fully  in  sympathy  with  a  strict  enforce- 
ment of  the  law,  and  a  few  changes  of  an  administrative 
nature  in  the  law  itself,  and  it  is  probable  that  immigra- 
tion could  be  considerably  reduced  in  numbers  and  im- 
proved in  quality  without  any  additions  to  the  excluded 
classes  or  the  adoption  of  any  radical  measures  of  restric- 

68  Commissioner-General  Powderly,  in  Report  of  the  Com- 
missioner-General of  Immigration,  1899;  ibid,  /poo. 

59  Report  of  the  Commissioner  at  New  York,  1901. 

60  Forum,  vol.  14,  p.  812  (Feb.  1893).     Cp.  Dr.  Allan  McLaugh- 
lin,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  62,  p.  236  (Jan.  1903).     See 
also  the  draft  bill  of  the  Industrial  Commission  extending  the 
period  of  deportation  to  four  years.     Report  of  the  Industrial 
Commission,  vol.  19,  p.  1019,  §  20. 


296  Immigration  Legislation 

tion.  We  shall  now  proceed  to  summarize  the  more  im- 
portant of  these  matters. 

Cooperation  of  all  officials.  The  lack  of  harmonious 
and  efficient  cooperation  between  the  various  officials  of 
the  immigration  service,  and  between  these  and  the  offi- 
cials of  the  Department  of  Justice  is  a  source  of  great 
embarrassment  in  enforcing  the  law.  The  lack  of  dili- 
gence on  the  part  of  district  attorneys  in  securing 
prompt  and  thorough  prosecutions  tends  to  encourage 
violations  and  to  dishearten  conscientious  immigration 
officers.61 

With  a  law  as  elastic  as  the  present,  there  is  likeli- 
hood of  fluctuation  in  the  severity  of  its  enforcement  in 
accordance  with  the  favorable  or  unfavorable  attitude  of 
our  higher  officials  towards  immigration.  These  offi- 
cials are  subject  at  times  to  almost  irresistible  political 
pressure  and  to  other  influences  making  against  a  strict 
construction  and  administration.  A  lax  attitude  on  the 
part  of  those  at  the  head  of  the  service  is  at  once  re- 
flected through  all  grades  of  officials  down  to  the  pri- 
mary inspectors. 

One  specific  subject  in  which  lack  of  uniformity  works 
especially  bad  results  is  the  matter  of  appeals.  It  might 
be  supposed  that  each  decision  on  appeal  would  affect 
only  the  case  appealed.  On  the  contrary,  every  time  an 
appeal  is  sustained  it  tends  to  prevent  exclusions  by  the 
boards  of  special  inquiry  in  cases  where  the  facts  are 
similar  to  those  in  the  case  appealed,  and  thus  the  whole 
service  is  weakened.  This  effect  is  not  intentional  but 
arises  partly  from  a  human  aversion  to  doing  futile  work 
and  partly  from  a  fear  of  displeasing  higher  officials. 

J1  See  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration, 
1900,  pp.  50,  109.  As  to  the  difficulty  of  securing  evidence,  see 
Report  of  the  Ellis  Island  Commission,  p.  18  (1904). 


Proposed  Legislation  297 

Whenever,  as  has  sometimes  been  the  case,  appeals  have 
not  been  decided  with  uniformity,  these  evil  effects  are 
much  increased.62 

Limiting  the  privilege  of  assisting  immigrants.  At 
present,  probably  from  one-half  to  two-thirds  of  all  im- 
migrants are  assisted  to  emigrate,  and  under  the  law  any 
friend  or  relative  can  prepay  the  passage  of  any  alien. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  this  privilege  should  be  re- 
stricted to  members  of  the  immediate  family  of  the  in- 
tending immigrant,  and  to  cases  where  the  family  are 
able  to  support  him  on  his  arrival.  Such  a  provision 
would  do  much  to  prevent  the  immigration  of  many  who 
become  public  charges  soon  after  arrival. 

Bonding  persons  likely  to  become  public  charges.  As 
already  explained,  many  persons  likely  to  become  public 
charges  are  now  admitted  by  boards  of  special  inquiry  on 
the  verbal  promise  of  friends,  relatives  or  philanthropic 
societies  that  they  will  look  out  for  them.  The  theory 
that  such  promises  make  the  immigrants  no  longer  public 
charges  has  been  repeatedly  found  fallacious.  Only  rel- 
atives should  be  allowed  to  give  bonds,  and  the  latter 
should  be  for  substantial  amounts  with  good  sureties. 
Any  city,  town,  institution  or  individual  damaged  by  the 
admission  of  the  alien  should  be  allowed  to  sue  on  his 
bond.  A  small  bond  is  of  no  value  because  it  costs  too 
much  to  sue  upon  it.  The  adoption  of  this  change  would 
exclude  a  very  undesirable  element  of  the  present  immi- 
gration. 

Other  matters.  The  present  inspection  of  immigrants 
is  often  very  superficial  owing  to  the  small  amount  of 
time  available.  More  inspectors  and  more  accommoda- 

62  For  other  suggestions  as  to  appeals  see  Report  of  Ellis  Is- 
land Commission,  pp.  25,  37  (1904)  ;  Report  of  the  Commissioner- 
General  of  Immigration,  1905,  p.  74.  Cp.  Department  Circular 
of  Aug.  26,  1903,  Rule  8. 


298  Immigration  Legislation 

tions  for  inspection  also  are  needed  to  perfect  the  work  of 
examination,63  and  to  test  the  truthfulness  of  statements 
as  to  occupation,  destination  and  other  matters.  A  more 
thorough  inspection  would  undoubtedly  result  in  the  dis- 
covery of  more  frauds  practised  by  immigrants  similar  to 
those  in  1902-3  when  it  was  found  that  large  numbers  of 
addresses  in  New  York  City  of  friends  or  relatives,  to 
whom  the  aliens  represented  they  were  going,  were  en- 
tirely fictitious.  The  manifests  should  be  altered  so  as  to 
show  the  actual  amount  of  money  brought.64  It  is 
also  desirable  that  steps  be  taken  to  obtain  statistics  of 
emigration.  Landing  certificates  should  be  given  to 
immigrants,  and  the  production  of  them  required  for 
naturalization.63  The  sale  of  tickets  by  unauthorized 
agents  of  steamship  companies  should  be  forbidden,  and 
thus  the  whole  matter  be  made  subject  to  the  United 
States  regulations.66 

63  Gen.  James   R.   O'Beirne,  formerly  assistant  Commissioner 
at  New  York,  in  Independent,  vol.  45,  p.  1471    (Nov.  2,  1893)  ; 
Commissioner  Williams,  in  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General 
of  Immigration,  1904,  p.  101.     The  medical  inspection  of  an  im- 
migrant at  Ellis  Island  often  occupies  only  six  seconds. 

64  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  19,  p.   1010;  Re- 
port of  Immigration  Investigating  Commission,  p.  43    (1895). 

65  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  19,  p.  ion. 

66  Report  of  the  Immigration  Investigating  Commission,  p.  40. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

OTHER  PROPOSED  REMEDIES  FOR 
IMMIGRATION  EVILS 

A.      DISTRIBUTION  OF  IMMIGRANTS  1 

IT  will  be  apparent  from  the  previous  discussion  of  the 
economic  and  social  effects  of  immigration  that  many  of 
the  evils  arising  from  the  enormous  influx  of  aliens  in 
recent  years  have  been  aggravated  by  the  congestion  of 
these  aliens  in  certain  parts  of  the  country,  and  especially 
in  certain  large  cities.  This  has  given  rise  to  the  sug- 
gestion that,  if  these  immigrants  could  in  some  way  be 
taken  out  of  the  congested  districts  and  distributed 
throughout  the  country,  especially  in  regions  thinly  set- 
tled and  in  places  where  labor  is  wanted,  it  would  go  far 
towards  solving  the  immigration  problem;  and  it  is 
pointed  out  that  the  dangers  of  immigration  in  the  past 
have  been  minimized  by  the  great  size  of  this  country 
and  the  scattering  of  immigrants  over  it.  The  desira- 
bility of  distribution  has  been  emphasized  by  nearly  every- 
one who  has  made  a  study  of  the  problem,  by  Superin- 
tendent Stump  in  1894,  by  Commissioner-General  Pow- 
derly  in  1898,  1899  and  1901  2  and  by  Commissioner- 
General  Sargent  in  1903  and  I9O4.3 

1  See  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  492- 
646;  vol.  19,  pp.  973-977;  R.  De  C.  Ward,  in  Popular  Science 
Monthly,  vol.  66,  pp.  166-175  (Dec.  1904). 

-  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1901, 

P-  35- 

3  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1903, 
p.  60;  ibid.,  1904,  p.  45;  J.  J.  D.  Trcnor,  Chairman  of  Committee 

299 


300  Immigration  Legislation 

It  is  obvious  that  some  pressure  must  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  immigrants  to  secure  distribution,  because 
under  the  present  system  they  do  not  voluntarily  distrib- 
ute themselves.  The  Industrial  Commission  suggested, 
as  a  preliminary  measure,  that  steps  be  taken  to  ascertain 
the  wishes  of  the  various  localities  with  regard  to  immi- 
grants, by  means  of  the  thousands  of  agents  of  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture ;  and  that  an  information  bureau 

on  Immigration  of  National  Board  of  Trade  (1904),  in  Annals 
of  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  vol.  24, 
P-  235  (July,  1904)  !  Dr.  J.  H.  Senner,  formerly  Commissioner  at 
New  York,  in  ibid,  vol.  10,  pp.  18,  19  (July,  1897)  J  C.  L.  Sulz- 
btirger,  in  Charities,  vol.  12,  p.  421  (Apr.  23,  1904).  Commis- 
sioner-General Sargent  says : 

"  In  my  judgment  the  smallest  part  of  the  duty  to  be  dis- 
charged in  successfully  handling  alien  immigrants,  with  a  view 
to  the  protection  of  the  people  and  the  institutions  of  this  country, 
is  that  part  now  provided  for  by  law.  Its  importance,  though 
undeniable,  is  relatively  of  secondary  moment.  It  cannot,  for 
example,  compare  in  practical  value  with,  nor  can  it  take  the 
place  of  measures  to  insure  the  distribution  of  the  many  thousands 
who  come  in  ignorance  of  the  industrial  needs  and  opportunities 
of  this  country,  and,  by  a  more  potent  law  than  that  of  supply 
and  demand,  which  speaks  to  them  here  in  an  unknown  tongue, 
colonizes  alien  communities  in  our  great  cities.  Such  colonies 
are  a  menace  to  the  physical,  social,  moral  and  political  security 
of  the  country.  .  .  .  Do  away  with  them  and  the  greatest 
peril  of  immigration  will  be  removed.  .  .  .  Suitable  legisla- 
tion is  therefore  strongly  urged  to  establish  agencies  by  means 
of  which,  either  with  or  without  the  co-operation  of  the  States, 
aliens  shall  be  made  acquainted  with  the  resources  of  the  coun- 
try at  large,  and  the  industrial  needs  of  the  various  sections,  in 
both  skilled  and  unskilled  labor,  the  cost  of  living,  the  wages 
paid,  the  price  and  capabilities  of  the  land,  the  character  of  the 
climates,  the  duration  of  the  seasons — in  short,  all  that  informa- 
tion furnished  by  some  of  the  great  railway  lines  through 
whose  efforts  the  territory  tributary  thereto  has  been  transformed 
from  a  wilderness  within  a  few  years  to  the  abiding  place  of  a 
happy  and  prosperous  population." 


Remedies  for  Immigration  Evils       301 

should  be  established  at  Ellis  Island  to  inform  immi- 
grants as  to  the  industries  of  the  several  States  and  the 
opportunities  for  employment.  Such  a  bureau  would  un- 
doubtedly do  much  to  stimulate  immigration,  and  to 
nullify  the  contract  labor  laws.  It  has  also  been  sug- 
gested that  if  a  number  of  recent  arrivals  could  be  sent 
from  the  congested  districts  of  our  eastern  cities  to  other 
parts  of  the  country,  their  friends  and  relatives  coming 
hereafter  would  be  likely  to  follow  them  to  the  same  lo- 
calities, and  thus  a  considerable  distribution  be  effected.4 
The  difficulty  of  adequate  distribution  has  been  in- 
creased in  recent  years  from  the  change  in  natural  con- 
ditions. We  have  already  seen  how  our  population  has 
tended  more  and  more  to  live  in  the  cities.  In  the  earlier 
days  and  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the  country  agricul- 
ture was  the  principal  occupation,  and  this  in  itself  neces- 
sarily involved  the  distribution  of  the  workers  over  con- 
siderable areas.  In  modern  times,  however,  the  intro- 
duction of  plowing  and  harvesting  machinery  has  very 
largely  reduced  the  number  of  laborers  required  to  run 

4  Mr.  Eliot  Norton,  in  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Political  and  Social  Science,  vol.  24,  p.  164  (July,  1904)  and  in 
Charities,  vol.  12,  pp.  152-154  (Feb.  6,  1004),  has  laid  down  the 
requirements  for  successful  distribution  of  immigrants  as  follows : 

(i).  The  climate  of  the  locality  to  which  the  immigrant  is  to 
be  removed  must  be  one  with  which  he  is  satisfied.  (2).  The 
immigrant  must  be  assured  of  a  reasonable  livelihood  in  excess 
of  what  he  would  earn  in  his  own  country.  (3).  He  must 
have  his  railroad  fare  paid  to  his  destination.  (4).  He  must 
have  some  neighbors  of  his  own  countrymen.  (5).  He  must  have 
some  means  of  support  while  getting  settled  and  until  he 
is  able  to  support  himself.  Immigrants  can  frequently  make  sat- 
isfactory arrangements  with  landowners,  provided  they  can  be 
supported  until  the  first  harvest  is  in,  but  to  support  them  until 
that  time  they  must  either  have  a  surplus  of  money  of  their 
own  or  a  fund  must  be  provided  for  their  maintenance. 


302  Immigration  Legislation 

a  farm.  In  the  case  of  many  crops,  extra  labor  is  re- 
quired only  for  the  few  weeks  of  harvest  time,  and  there 
is  nothing  for  such  labor  to  do  during  the  balance  of  the 
year.5 

To  scatter  city  slum  populations  and  recent  arrivals, 
in  the  face  of  the  present  movement  toward  the  cities,  on 
a  scale  large  enough  to  be  at  all  effective,  would  require 
vast  sums  of  money.  Moreover,  a  distribution  which 
simply  moves  large  numbers  to  other  localities,  where 
they  tend  to  form  the  same  sort  of  communities,  is  not 
really  a  solution  of  the  problem, — a  problem  which  is  in 
substance  to  change  them  into  thrifty  and  intelligent 
settlers,  whose  homes  shall  be  centers  of  family  life  and 
civic  interest.  To  be  really  effective,  thousands  of  fami- 
lies should  be  removed  from  the  slums  of  New  York, 
Chicago,  Boston  and  other  cities  every  year,  and  the 
incoming  of  two  or  three  times  as  many  families  of  newer 
immigrants  of  the  same  standard  of  living  should  be 
prevented. 

B  As  to  the  effect  of  farm  machinery  see  Dr.  A.  C.  True  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  in  Arena,  vol.  15,  pp.  538-540 
(Mar.  1897)  5  John  Chetwood,  Jr.,  in  Arena,  vol.  17,  p.  797 
(Dec.  1897).  Mr.  Gustavo  Tosti,  acting  consul-general  of  Italy 
in  New  York,  says: 

"  There  is  a  misleading  idea  in  certain  quarters  that  the 
agricultural  distribution  of  Italian  immigrants  should  be  ob- 
tained simply  through  the  employment  of  a  large  number  of 
Italians  as  farm  workers  and  farm  hands.  .  .  .  The  character 
of  agricultural  work  is,  by  its  very  nature,  precarious.  The 
Italian  immigrants  would  thus  find  employment  during  a  few 
months  of  the  year,  when,  for  instance,  at  harvest  time,  there  is 
an  enormous  demand  for  labor.  But  after  a  comparatively  short 
period  of  occupation  they  would  lapse  into  enforced  idleness 
which  would  undoubtedly  drive  them  back  into  the  industrial 
centers.  The  only  way  to  get  at  the  root  of  the  question  is  to 
transform  a  large  portion  of  our  immigrants  into  land  owners  or 
farmers." 


Remedies  for  Immigration  Evils       303 

Although  there  is  no  doubt  that  distribution  is  a  most 
important  and  necessary  work,  yet  the  success  thus  far 
attained  is  not  very  encouraging.  The  Hebrew  Indus- 
trial Removal  office  in  New  York  City  sent  out  5525 
persons  in  1903,  while  in  the  same  year  43,000  Jewish 
immigrants  settled  in  the  city.  During  the  first  three  years 
of  its  existence  the  society  sent  out  a  total  of  10,563 
persons,  and  it  is  evident  that  its  work  must  be  increased 
many-fold  to  cope  with  the  present  situation.  The  Ital- 
ian societies  in  New  York  and  Boston  have  also  inter- 
ested themselves  in  the  matter  of  colonizing  immigrants, 
and  the  governments  of  Austria  and  Italy  have  lent  a 
helping  hand  to  these  movements ;  but,  up  to  the  present 
time,  but  little  has  been  accomplished. 

The  principal  difficulty  with  the  distribution  scheme 
is  that,  in  so  far  as  it  involves  the  immigrant  taking  up 
agricultural  pursuits,  most  of  our  modern  immigrants 
are  not  fitted  for  such  work.  Long  residence  in  the 
ghettoes  of  Europe  has  unfitted  most  of  the  Jews  to  be 
independent  farmers.  So  with  the  Syrians  and  Armen- 
ians, who,  like  most  of  our  recent  immigrants,  are  too 
ignorant  to  make  a  success  of  farming  life. 

Furthermore,  in  order  to  effect  a  satisfactory  distribu-. 
tion  immigrants  must  be  needed  and  desired  by  the  dis- 
trict into  which  it  is  proposed  to  send  them.  The  United 
States  Immigration  Investigating  Commission  in  1895 
and  the  Immigration  Restriction  League  in  1904  made 
inquiries  of  the  officials  of  the  several  States  as  to  their 
desires  and  needs  in  the  matter.6  The  results  of  these 
two  sets  of  inquiries  were  substantially  the  same  and  dis- 
closed the  fact  that  the  only  demand  on  the  part  of  any 
locality  for  recent  immigration  from  Southern  and  East- 

6  For  detailed  information  as  to  this  point,  see  infra,  chapter 
xiv.,  A. 


304  Immigration  Legislation 

ern  Europe,  was  for  Italian  farmers  with  families  and 
with  capital,  intending  permanent  settlement.  The  races 
chiefly  desired  were  native  Americans,  British,  Germans, 
Scandinavians,  French  and  Swiss.  In  every  case,  in  the 
recent  canvass,  the  officials  objected  in  the  strongest 
terms  to  any  plan  for  shipping  immigrants  from  the  slums 
of  Eastern  cities  into  their  respective  localities.  On  the 
contrary,  many  of  the  States  prefer  immigrants  from 
other  sections  of  the  country,  who  have  resided  in  the 
United  States  for  some  time  and  are  familiar  with 
American  customs,  or  else  the  kindred  races  of  Northern 
Europe  with  whom  we  are  already  familiar. 

In  the  South,  industrial  competition,  combined  with 
the  inefficiency  of  the  negro  and  the  movement  toward  the 
cities  above  noted,  has  created  a  certain  demand  for 
foreign  labor  for  the  fields.  Thus,  we  read  that  the 
Italian  ambassador  has  recently  been  attempting  to 
establish  Italian  immigration  centers  in  Texas,  Louisiana, 
and  Georgia  with  a  view  to  inducing  the  agricultural 
element  of  Italy  to  settle  the  vexing  problem  of  working 
Southern  fields.  It  is  significantly  stated  in  the  same 
despatch  that  "  the  movement  will  be  financed  entirely 
by  New  York  capital."7  From  this  it  appears  that  the 
plan  is  not  one  of  pure  philanthropy,  and,  indeed,  there  is 
good  reason  to  suppose  that  it  is  chiefly  the  railroad  and 
steamship  interests  who  are  behind  the  distribution 
scheme,  and  have  been  booming  it  as  the  only  hopeful 
solution  of  the  immigration  question.  The  reasons  for 
this  are  not  far  to  seek.  On  the  one  hand,  these  interests 
realize  that  their  doings  in  the  past  have  resulted  in  real 
and  serious  evil,  and  that  the  public  is  not  going  to  stand 

7  Cp.  Austin  Corbin's  plan  in  1895  to  colonize  part  of  Arkansas 
with  Italians.  See  also,  as  to  Italian  colonies,  Eliot  Lord,  J.  J. 
D.  Trenor  and  Samuel  J.  Barrows,  The  Italian  in  America  (1905). 


Remedies  for  Immigration  Evils       305 

indefinitely  a  continuance  of  the  same  dumping  process. 
It  therefore  behooves  them  to  create  a  diversion  of  immi- 
grants from  the  sea  board,  and  more  especially  a  diver- 
sion of  the  public  mind  from  effectual  methods  of 
restricting  immigration.  On  the  other  hand,  any  dis- 
tribution scheme  tends  to  increase  their  own  profits ; 
directly,  through  the  transportation  of  those  distributed, 
and  indirectly  by  the  additional  transportation  of  friends 
and  relatives  of  those  so  distributed,  when  they  in  their 
turn  shall  come  over. 

The  South  undoubtedly  would  like  immigration;  but 
it  is  the  section  of  the  country  where  the  pride  of  race 
purity  is  the  strongest,  and  the  Southern  people  do  not 
wish  the  introduction  of  inferior  classes,  servile  like  the 
negro,  but  certain  to  intermingle  far  more  than  he  with 
the  native  stock.  It  is  this  feeling  which  has  led  several 
Southern  industrial  conventions  to  demand  the  exclusion 
of  illiterate  immigrants.8 

One  of  the  most  hopeful  schemes  for  diverting  steerage 
traffic  from  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Balti- 
more is  to  induce  the  steamship  companies  to  make  sail- 

8  "  The  cotton  factory  development  in  the  South  would  perhaps 
suffer  more  seriously  than  any  other  by  the  invasion  of  this  law- 
less and  pauper  immigration,  because  of  the  ease  by  which,  with 
the  willingness  to  accept  cheap  wages,  they  could  underbid  and 
drive  out  the  excellent  high-class  American  labor  with  which 
the  mills  there  are  now  conducted.  The  Italian  and  Austrian 
could  drive  out  the  operatives  there  just  as  the  Canadians  have 
driven  them  from  the  northern  cotton  mills.  Protect  the  South 
from  this  degraded  population  and  her  natural  advantages  and 
boundless  resources  will  enable  her  to  secure  the  cream  of  im- 
migration." Congressman  Stanyarne  Wilson,  of  South  Carolina. 
Speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  June  16,  1898:  Con- 
gressional Record,  p.  6731.  In  September,  1905,  the  Farmers' 
National  Congress,  sitting  at  Richmond,  Va.,  passed  resolutions 
in  favor  of  further  restriction. 


306  Immigration  Legislation 

ings  directly  from  the  Mediterranean  to  Mobile,  New 
Orleans  or  Galveston ;  and  this  has,  in  part,  taken  place 
recently.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  this 
merely  removes  the  evil  to  another  part  of  the  country 
and  scatters  it,  and  that  nothing  short  of  a  careful  sifting 
of  immigrants  and  their  settlement  in  the  country  dis- 
tricts will  prevent  the  slum  and  the  sweatshop  from 
arising  even  in  comparatively  new  parts  of  the  country. 
The  matter  of  distribution  may  be  summed  up  in  the 
saying  of  President  Roosevelt  that  we  must  exclude  the 
undesirable  and  at  the  same  time  distribute  the  desirable. 
Unless  we  do  both  nothing  will  be  gained.9 

B.     PROTECTIVE    AND    ASSIMILATING    MOVEMENTS 

In  recent  years  many  organizations  have  come  into 
being  in  the  large  Eastern  cities  having  for  their  object 
the  assimilation  of  immigrants  and  the  improvement  of 
their  condition,  each  society  usually  dealing  with  immi- 
grants of  one  nationality.  These  organizations  have 
come  about  partly  from  the  formation  of  clubs  of  native- 
born  citizens  interested  in  the  various  foreign  languages, 
partly  as  an  extension  of  the  practical  relief  work  of  the 
boards  of  associated  charities  and  college  settlements,  and 
partly  in  response  to  certain  specific  needs  of  the  immi- 
grants. All  the  societies  are,  in  a  sense,  the  descendants 
of  earlier  ones,  like  that  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  whose 

9  "  To  relieve  the  pressure  of  the  cities  without  restricting  the 
number  admitted  only  opens  the  way  for  still  larger  immigra- 
tion ;  for,  strangely  enough,  emigration  has  not  relieved  the 
pressure  of  the  population  of  Europe.  In  no  period  of  their 
history,  with  the  exception  of  Ireland,  have  the  populations  of 
Europe  increased  at  a  greater  rate  than  during  the  last  half 
century  of  migration  to  America.  As  a  relief  for  current  immi- 
gration, agricultural  distribution  is  not  promising."  Prof.  John 
R.  Commons,  in  Chautaitquan,  vol.  38,  p.  224  (May,  1904). 


Remedies  for  Immigration  Evils       307 

agents  have  for  many  years  met  arriving  vessels  and  as- 
sisted aliens  with  advice  and  care.  In  Boston  and  in  New 
York,  for  example,  there  are  Hebrew,  German,  Italian 
and  other  societies  engaged  in  looking  after  immigrants 
of  their  respective  nationalities.  The  Boston  Society  for 
the  Protection  of  Italian  Immigrants  was  organized  in 
1902,  largely  to  protect  newcomers  from  sharpers,  thieves 
and  fraudulent  persons,  who  preyed  upon  them  as  soon  as 
they  had  passed  inspection ;  and  also  from  the  fraud  of 
bankers  and  padroni.  Restitution  of  overcharges  by 
foreign  railway  officials;  of  overcharges  on  telegrams; 
caring  for  the  savings  of  immigrants  and  remitting  them 
to  Italy ;  collecting  damages  and  wages  due  to  laborers ; 
finding  employment  and  furnishing  instruction,  are  some 
of  the  lines  of  its  work.  This  Society  has  had  the  benefit 
of  a  subvention  of  $1000  a  year  from  the  Italian  govern- 
ment, which  is  probably  animated  in  giving  it  both  by  a 
desire  to  help  its  citizens  and  by  a  keen  appreciation  of  the 
benefits  of  the  emigration  to  Italy  itself.  However  this 
may  be,  this  particular  organization  has  recently  become 
functus  offtcio,  having  secured  substantially  all  of  its  de- 
sired reforms.  Its  assimilating  work  is  being  carried  on 
by  one  of  the  college  settlements,  which  is,  however,  con- 
ducting classes  in  the  Italian  language.  Clubs,  industrial 
classes  and  classes  in  English  are  part  of  the  work.  There 
is  also  a  Benevolent  Aid  Society  for  Italian  Immigrants. 
Similar  organizations  exist  for  the  various  nationalities 
in  most  of  the  large  cities.  In  New  York,  the  Society 
for  the  Protection  of  Italian  Immigrants,10  the  United 
Hebrew  Charities,  the  Educational  Alliance,  where  thou- 
sands of  immigrant  children  are  fitted  to  enter  the  public 
schools  of  New  York,  the  German  and  Scandinavian 

10  G.  C.  Speranza,  in  Outlook,  vol.  76,  pp.  928-933   (April   16, 
1904). 


308  Immigration  Legislation 

Societies,  and  many  others,  are  benevolent,  and,  to  some 
extent,  assimilating  agencies.11  It  must  be  remembered, 
however,  that  associations  dealing  with  a  race  as  such, 
and  consequently  using  chiefly  the  language  of  that  race, 
may  have  some  tendency  in  the  other  direction,  namely, 
to  keep  the  race  a  distinct  element  in  the  population. 
Especial  attention  should  be  directed  by  such  bodies  to 
the  teaching  of  American  history  and  government.  . 

Many  of  these  societies  are  concerned  with  the  dis- 
tribution of  immigrants  as  a  means  towards  their  general 
ends.  Outside  of  the  Industrial  Removal  Office,  how- 
ever, it  is  not  believed  that  they  have  done  anything  in 
the  way  of  settling  significant  numbers  of  persons  in  the 
country. 

11  The  Boston  Italian  Society  of  Columbus  obliges  its  mem- 
bers to  be  citizens. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

CONSIDERATIONS    WITH    RESPECT    TO 
FURTHER    RESTRICTION 

A.       PUBLIC  OPINION  AS  TO  RESTRICTION 

THE  attitude  of  the  public  toward  immigration  during  the 
colonial  period  and  down  to  the  taking  of  control  by  the 
Federal  Government  and  the  passing  of  existing  legis- 
lation, has  been  already  considered.1  We  shall  now  con- 
sider the  present  attitude  of  the  public  toward  the  general 
question  of  restriction,  and,  also,  toward  particular 
methods  of  regulation,  so  far  as  the  latter  can  be  inferred 
from  the  approval  of  methods  recently  proposed  which 
have  not  yet  been  enacted  into  law. 

As  regards  the  expression  of  opinion  in  speeches, 
magazine  articles  and  the  newspapers,  it  is  only  natural 
to  find  the  great  majority  of  speakers  and  writers  in 
favor  of  further  restriction.  Those  who  favor  leaving 
things  as  they  are  have  no  occasion  to  express  their  views, 
except  once  in  a  while  when  some  bill  seems  likely  to  pass 
Congress  to  which  they  are  opposed.  So  far  as  the 
writer  is  aware,  although  there  are  some  who  would  like 
to  see  the  Chinese  Exclusion  and  Contract  Labor  acts 
repealed,  there  are  none  who  desire  to  let  down  the  pres- 
ent bars  against  the  entrance  of  diseased,  criminal  and 
pauper  aliens. 

It  so  happens  that  many  of  the  most  zealous  advocates 
of  the  further  restriction  of  immigration  in  recent  years 
1  Chapters  i.  and  x. 
309 


310  Immigration  Legislation 

have  belonged  to  the  Republican  party;  and  while  there 
have  been  Democrats  equally  zealous,  and  while  the  ad- 
vocates of  restriction  have  always  tried  to  prevent  their 
agitation  from  becoming  a  party  question,  on  the  whole, 
the  platforms  and  other  authoritative  pronouncements  of 
the  Republicans  have  been  more  favorable  to  restriction 
than  those  of  any  other  party.  This  has,  ostensibly,  been 
the  result  of  the  Republican  doctrine  that  that  party  is 
the  especial  friend  of  labor;  and  of  the  obvious  incon- 
gruity of  protecting  the  manufacturer  from  the  competi- 
tion of  foreign  goods  while  leaving  the  laborer  exposed 
to  the  competition  of  foreign  labor.2 

2  The  Republican  platform  of  1902,  said :  "  We  favor  the 
enactment  of  more  stringent  laws  and  regulations  for  the  restric- 
tion of  criminal,  pauper  and  contract  immigration." 

The  Democratic  platform  of  the  same  year,  said :  "  We 
heartily  approve  all  legitimate  efforts  to  prevent  the  United 
States  from  being  used  as  the  dumping  ground  for  the  known 
criminals  and  professional  paupers  of  Europe,  and  we  demand 
the  rigid  enforcement  of  the  law  against  Chinese  immigra- 
tion or  the  importation  of  foreign  workmen  under  contract 
to  degrade  American  labor  and  lessen  the  wages,  but  we  con- 
demn and  denounce  any  and  all  attempts  to  restrict  the  immi- 
gration of  the  industrious  and  worthy  of  foreign  lands." 

The  Republican  platform  of  1896,  said :  "  For  the  protection  of 
the  equality  of  American  citizenship  and  of  wages  of  our  working 
men  against  the  fatal  competition  of  low-priced  labor,  we  de- 
mand that  the  immigration  laws  be  thoroughly  enforced  and  so 
extended  as  to  exclude  from  entrance  to  the  United  States  those 
who  can  neither  read  nor  write." 

The  Republican  platform  of  1900,  said :  "  In  the  further  in- 
terests of  American  workmen  we  favor  a  more  effective  restric- 
tion of  the  immigration  of  cheap  labor  from  foreign  lands." 

The  Democratic  platform  of  the  same  year  said : 

"  We  favor  the  continuance  and  strict  enforcement  of  the 
Chinese  Exclusion  Law,  and  its  application  to  the  same  classes 
of  all  Asiatic  races." 

President    McKinley    in    his    inaugural    address    said:    "A 


With  Respect  to  Further  Restriction    311 

Nevertheless,  the  votes  in  Congress  by  which  the  illit- 
eracy test  has  been  adopted,  nearly  every  time  it  has 
come  up,  have  been  such  as  to  indicate  the  non-partisan 
standing  of  the  measure  in  public  opinion ;  and,  although 
perhaps  the  more  vigorous  calls  for  restriction  have  been 
found  in  Republican  platforms  and  speeches,  yet  some  of 
the  most  enthusiastic  restrictionists  have  been  Democrats. 
In  the  57th  Congress  the  educational  test  was  added  to 
the  general  immigration  bill  upon  the  motion  of  a  lead- 
ing Democrat  from  Alabama.  Further  restriction  has 
also  been  demanded,  at  various  times,  by  the  Legisla- 
tures of  California,  Nevada,  Washington  and  Wyoming ; 
by  the  Arkansas  House  of  Representatives  by  a  vote  of 
80  to  2,  in  January,  1897;  and  by  the  Massachusetts 
House  of  Representatives,  in  1895.  In  the  57*n  Con- 
gress, the  Report  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Immigra- 
tion 3  contained  seventy-one  closely  printed  pages  of  en- 
grave peril  to  the  Republic  would  be  a  citizenship  too  ignorant 
to  understand  or  too  vicious  to  appreciate  the  great  value  and 
beneficence  of  our  institutions  and  laws,  and  against  all  who 
come  here  to  make  war  upon  them  our  gates  must  be  promptly 
and  tightly  closed." 

Restriction  was  demanded  by  the  Massachusetts  Republican 
platforms  of  1897  and  1898.  See  also  the  remarks  of  President 
Roosevelt  in  his  message  to  Congress,  December  3,  1901,  advo- 
cating moral,  economic  and  educational  tests.  In  his  message  of 
December  7,  1903,  he  said: 

"  We  cannot  have  too  much  immigration  of  the  right  kind, 
and  we  should  have  none  at  all  of  the  wrong  kind.  The  need  is 
to  devise  some  system  by  which  undesirable  immigrants  shall 
be  kept  out  entirely,  while  desirable  immigrants  are  properly 
distributed  throughout  the  country."  See  also  his  message  of 
December  5,  1905. 

Cp.  Prohibition  National  platform,  June,  1892;  President  Har- 
rison's message,  December  6,  1892. 

3  Senate  Documents,  57th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  No.  62,  pp.  327- 
398  (1902). 


312  Immigration  Legislation 

dorsements  and  petitions  for  further  restriction  from  all 
sorts  of  organizations  and  individuals.  Among  these,  it 
is  especially  interesting  to  note  one  by  the  City  Council 
of  Duluth  March  16,  1896,  adopted  by  the  unanimous  vote 
of  sixteen  members  and  approved  by  the  mayor.  An  ex- 
amination of  the  names  of  the  mayor  and  council  dis- 
closes the  fact  that  nearly  all  were  unmistakably  foreign, 
largely  German  and  Scandinavian 

With  a  large  section  of  the  public,  the  demand  for  re- 
striction has  always  varied  according  to  industrial  condi- 
tions and  the  labor  market.  When  prosperous  times  have 
induced  a  large  immigration  for  a  number  of  years,  and 
then  industrial  activity  falls  off,  many  are  thrown  out  of 
work;  and  the  newcomers,  as  well  as  those  whom  they 
have,  in  many  instances,  displaced,  unite  in  seeking  to 
prevent  still  further  competitors  from  entering.  In  the 
period  prior  to  1896,  these  conditions  obtained  to  a  con- 
siderable extent.  Large  numbers  were  out  of  employ- 
ment ;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  the  commissions  and  societies 
engaged  in  studying  the  question  of  unemployment 
generally  advocated  further  restriction  of  immigration 
as  a  solution  of  the  pending  difficulties.4 

The  labor  unions  have  always,  by  very  large  majorities, 
favored  further  restriction,  although  the  forcefulness  of 
their  demand  has  varied  with  conditions  in  the  labor 
market.  Thus,  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  in  its 
national  convention  in  1897  demanded  restriction  by  a 
vote  of  1858  to  351 ;  and  it  has  since  repeated  the  demand 
at  practically  every  convention.  The  General  Assembly 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor  has  frequently  demanded  re- 
striction. In  a  letter  to  Representative  Watson,  dated 
May  16,  1902,  President  Gompers  of  the  American 

4  e.  g.  Mass.  Commission  on  the  Unemployed  (1894),  whose 
report,  House  Document  No.  50,  was  dated  Mar.  13,  1895. 


With  Respect  to  Further  Restriction    313 

Federation  of  Labor  advocated  further  restriction, 
saying  that  the  strength  of  the  country  was  in  the 
intelligence  and  prosperity  of  the  working  people,  and 
that  both  of  these  elements  were  threatened  by  the  present 
immigration ;  that  it  was  the  economically  weak  and  not 
the  economically  strong  who  flooded  the  labor  market 
because  they  could  be  got  to  work  cheapest.  In  the 
first  session  of  the  57th  Congress  there  were  5082  peti- 
tions in  favor  of  restriction  of  immigration.  Of  these 
a  considerable  part  came  from  labor  unions.  The  largest 
number  was  furnished  by  Pennsylvania,  New  York, 
Illinois  and  Ohio ;  but  there  were  some  from  every  State, 
and  not  a  few  from  the  South  and  West.  In  addition 
to  the  endorsement  of  the  general  conventions  of  the  two 
leading  labor  organizations,  restriction  has  been  demanded 
by  many  important  national  unions,  such  as  the  Boiler 
Makers',  Iron  Ship  Builders',  Carpenters  and  Joiners', 
Electrical  Workers',  Glass  Blowers',  Horse  Sheers',  Hat 
Makers',  Wood  Carvers',  and  Granite  Cutters'. 

Whether  this  practical  unanimity  of  sentiment  will  con- 
tinue among  them  is  a  question.  There  have  always  been 
a  few  radicals  who  have  claimed  that  with  the  increase  to 
the  labor  vote,  which  could  be  recruited  from  immigrants, 
wages  could  be  forced  up  further  and  more  rapidly  than 
they  would  tend  to  be  cut  down  by  the  competition  of 
immigrants  and  their  children.  More  recently,  as  some 
of  the  newer  nationalities  have  come  under  the  influence 
of  the  trade  union  movement,  and  have  been  formed  into 
unions  on  the  basis  of  race  and  language,  the  probability 
of  any  national  body  containing  such  local  unions,  taking 
radical  steps  to  restrict  the  immigration  of  the  national- 
ities in  them,  becomes  very  doubtful.  This  is  likely,  for 
example,  to  affect  the  Granite  Cutters'  National  Union, 
as  many  Italian  stone  cutters  have  become  members  of 


314  Immigration  Legislation 

local  bodies.  Nevertheless,  for  a  long  time  to  come 
the  influence  of  the  labor  unions  is  likely  to  be  for 
further  restriction ;  and  they  have  it  in  their  power  to  ac- 
complish a  great  deal  if  they  are  sufficiently  insistent  in 
their  demands. 

Another  group  which  comes  into  contact  with  immigra- 
tion almost  as  directly  as  the  laboring  class,  are  the 
charity  workers.  In  1902  over  two-thirds  of  the  Boards, 
of  Associated  Charities  of  the  United  States  asked  for  help 
in  their  endeavors  by  a  more  careful  selection  of  immi- 
grants. 

In  the  report  for  1904  of  the  Associated  Charities 
of  Boston  this  language  occurs :  "  With  an  immigra- 
tion as  unrestrained  as  at  present,  we  can  have  little 
hope  of  permanent  gain  in  the  struggle  for  uplifting  the 
poor  of  our  cities,  since  newcomers  are  always  at  hand, 
ignorant  of  American  standards." 

Further  restriction  has  also  had  the  endorsement  of 
the  International  Convention  of  Factory  Inspectors  in 
1897 ;  of  the  National  Prison  Reform  Association  in  the 
same  year ;  of  the  Commander  of  the  Salvation  Army ;  of 
numerous  local,  charitable,  temperance  and  reformatory 
organizations;  and  of  judges  who  have  come  in  con- 
tact with  the  undesirable  side  of  immigrant  life  in  their 
official  positions.  Restriction  has  also  been  endorsed  by 
the  National  Board  of  Trade,  and  by  many  local  boards 
of  trade  and  chambers  of  commerce  in  all  parts  of  the 
country.  Not  the  least  significant  among  commercial 
organizations  are  the  societies  in  the  Northwestern  States 
for  promoting  immigration  into  that  region,  all  of  which, 
so  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  have  endorsed  further  re- 
triction  of  some  kinds  of  immigration  now  coming  in 
large  numbers. 

As  shown  by  press  clippings  received  by  the  Immigra- 


With  Respect  to  Further  Restriction    315 

tion  Restriction  League,  about  95  per  cent,  of  the  news- 
papers having  editorials  upon  the  immigration  question 
have  been  in  favor  of  further  restriction.  This  includes 
German,  Scandinavian  and  Italian  newspapers  as  well  as 
those  printed  in  English.5  The  movement  for  further 
restriction  has  also  had  the  support  of  all  religious  be- 
liefs, as  well  as  of  the  members  of  all  political  parties. 
Thus,  although  the  later  immigration  is  rather  more 
Roman  Catholic  than  the  earlier,  we  find  a  note  of  warn- 
ing against  allowing  indiscriminate  immigration,  from 
such  leading  Catholics  as  Bishop  Spaulding  of  Peoria; 
and  although  Hebrew  immigration  has  been  a  close  second 
to  Italian  for  some  years,  we  find  numerous  leading  Jews 
who  consider  it  desirable,  even  from  the  standpoint  of 
their  own  countrymen,  that  immigration  of  the  kind  re- 
cently coming  in  should  be  sensibly  diminished. 

One  of  the  best  indications  of  public  sentiment  in 
regard  to  immigration,  is  that  furnished  by  the  answers 
of  governors  and  other  public  officials  of  the  various 
States,  in  regard  to  the  desires  and  needs  of  their  com- 
munities. Fifty-two  preferences  for  different  nationali- 
ties of  immigrants  were  expressed  to  the  Immigration 
Investigating  Commission.  These  were  distributed  as 
follows:  15  were  for  Germans;  14  for  Scandinavians;  2 
for  English,  Scotch  or  Irish ;  3  for  French ;  2  each  for 
Swiss  and  Italians ;  and  I  each  for  Hollanders,  Belgians, 
"  North  of  Europe  "  and  Americans.  It  may  be  noted 
that  there  were  only  two  calls  for  immigrants  from 
Southern  and  Eastern  Europe  and  that  these  were  both 
for  Italians.  One  of  the  governors  asking  for  Italians 
expressly  stated  that  he  was  "  not  sure  that  immigrants 

5  Cp.,  for  example,  Skandinaven,  Dec.  13,  1895 ;  Chicago  Ger- 
mania,  though  at  times  opposed;  La  Voce  del  Popolo,  San  Fran- 
cisco, Jan.  18,  20,  22,  and  25,  1898. 


316  Immigration  Legislation 

from  any  foreign  country  are  desirable  as  laborers  "  in 
his  State ;  and  the  other  said  that  "  unskilled  labor  is  not 
desired,"  but  that  farmers  with  small  means  were.  As 
very  few  of  the  Italian  immigrants  now  coming  to  this 
country  become  independent  farmers — they  are  chiefly 
unskilled  laborers — it  may  be  conceded,  in  the  second 
case,  that  Italian  immigration  of  the  present  character 
was  not  desired. 

In  1904,  a  similar  set  of  questions  was  sent  to  the 
governors  of  the  various  States  by  the  Immigration  Re- 
striction League,  with  the  following  result:  Iowa  and 
West  Virginia  reported  that  they  had  a  surplus  of  labor ; 
Connecticut  desired  some  emigration ;  and  Florida, 
Indiana,  Ohio  and  Washington  were  in  favor  of  further 
restriction.  Of  immigrants  desired :  7  States  desired 
native-born;  8.  persons  from  Northern  Europe;  15,  Brit- 
ish ;  18,  Scandinavians ;  20,  Germans ;  2,  Dutch ;  3,  skilled 
persons ;  1 1 .  families  intending  to  settle  in  the  country, 
and  3,  persons  with  money.  In  regard  to  immigrants  not 
welcomed,  3  States  did  not  desire  any  at  all ;  2  desired  no 
foreign-born ;  5,  no  Southern  and  Eastern  Europeans ;  8, 
no  illiterates;  3,  no  persons  likely  to  settle  in  cities;  7, 
no  Asiatic  immigrants;  one,  no  Poles;  one,  no  persons 
of  Latin  races;  one,  no  persons  who  were  unable 
to  speak  English ;  and  12  no  persons  distributed  from 
the  poorer  quarters  of  Eastern  cities.  The  last  choice 
throws  some  light  upon  the  distribution  of  immigrants 
as  a  solution  of  the  question  of  congestion.  The  replies 
received  by  the  Immigration  Restriction  League  show 
that  the  sentiment  in  the  country  has  not  changed  at  all 
since  1895,  an(l  that  tne  desire  for  restricting  certain  un- 
desirable classes  is  as  strong  to-day  as  ever,  in  the  general 
community,  although  it  has  not  had  as  full  expression  in 
votes  in  Congress.  The  Farmers'  National  Congress  in 


With  Respect  to  Further  Restriction    317 

1896,  1897  and  1905  advocated  further  restriction.  And 
among  the  newspapers  holding  the  same  view  may  be 
mentioned  the  American  Grange  Bulletin,  and  a  consider- 
able number  of  papers  in  the  rural  districts  of  the  West- 
ern and  Southern  States.  The  formation  of  the  Immi- 
gration Restriction  League  in  1894,  and  its  active  work 
since  that  time.,  are  an  indication  of  the  public  demand  for 
better  regulation.6 

It  is  believed  that  there  has  been  practically  no  pro- 
nounced opinion,  legislative  or  executive,  against  further 
restriction,  with  the  exception  of  President  Cleveland's 
veto  of  the  Lodge  bill.  But,  of  course,  there  have 
been  some  speeches  in  Congress  against  such  a  policy.7 
The  opposition  among  the  general  public  to  further  reg- 
ulation, may  be  divided  into  three  classes.  First,  there 
are  those  who  are  opposed  on  ethical  or  humanitarian 
principles.8  They  believe  not  only  in  the  complete  effi- 
cacy of  natural  selection  to  bring  about  the  most  desirable 
results,  but  that  it  is  morally  wrong  to  exclude  any  human 
being  from  any  part  of  the  earth's  surface.  The  second 

6  The  publications  of  the  League  may  be  had  free  of  charge 
by  addressing  the  Secretary,  60  State  St.,  Boston,  Mass.     It  is  a 
national  and  non-sectarian  organization. 

7  See  speech  of  Senator  Charles  H.   Gibson  of  Maryland,  in 
Congressional  Record,  vol.  29,  p.  2129  (Feb.  17,  1897)  ;  of  R.  B. 
Mahany  of  New  York,  ibid.,  vol.  28,  p.  6053    (May  20,   1896)  ; 
of  Senator  Caffery  of  Louisiana,  in  Congressional  Record,  vol. 
31,   p.  600    (Jan.    13,    1898).     Cp.   Minority  Report  of  the   New 
York  Board  of  Trade  and  Transportation,  Dec.  16,  1903. 

8  For  example,  Hon.  Carl  Schurz,    Rabbi    Charles    Fleischer, 
Edwin  D.  Mead,  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  President  Eliot  of 
Harvard.     See  Mr.  Garrison's  address  before  the  Massachusetts 
Reform  Club,  April  10,  1896,  and  his  open  letter  to  the  Immigra- 
tion Restriction  League,  in  Boston  Herald,  Jan.   17,   1808.     See 
also  the  sonnet  of  Miss  Emma  Lazarus,  called  "  Liberty  Enlight- 
ening the  World." 


318  Immigration  Legislation 

class  opposed  to  restriction  is  that  of  the  laissez  faire 
economists,  represented  by  men  like  the  late  Edward 
Atkinson  and  the  late  David  A.  Wells.  These,  likewise, 
have  a  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  natural  selection.  But,  in 
general,  they  also  support  the  doctrine  that  culture  is 
based  upon  wealth;  and  that,  if  an  immigrant  produces 
more  than  he  consumes  of  material  wealth,  he  is  in  the 
long  run  benefiting  the  country.  These  economists  tend  to 
make  light  of  the  moral  and  social  evils  of  immigration, 
and  to  insist  solely  upon  the  economic  side  of  the 
question.9  The  third  class  opposing  further  restriction 
are  those  directly  or  indirectly  interested  in  the  migra- 
tion of  large  numbers  of  cheap  laborers.  These  are,  for 
the  most  part,  the  steamship  companies,  some  of  the  rail- 
roads and  the  owners  of  coal  mines  and  certain  other  in- 
dustrial plants.10 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  effect  of  foreign 
laborers  in  disintegrating  the  attitude  of  the  leading  labor 
bodies  in  favor  of  further  regulation  of  immigration. 
An  influence  somewhat  similar  is  that  of  societies  com- 
posed of  foreigners.  While  these  may  be,  ostensibly, 
benevolent,  charitable,  educational,  protective,  literary, 
or  musical  they  tend  inevitably  to  conserve  race  distinc- 
tions and  to  favor  those  of  their  own  race.  Societies  of 
this  character  have  increased  with  great  rapidity  in  recent 
years,  whether,  as  is  alleged  by  the  Commissioner-Gen- 
eral of  Immigration,  in  part  through  the  influence  of 

9  For  a  statement  of  Mr.  Atkinson's  views  see  Forum,  vol.  13, 
p.  360  (May,  1892).     Cp.  also  George  F.  Parker,  in  Forum,  vol. 
14,  p.  600   (Jan.    1893)  ;  Dr.  J.  H.  Senner,  in  Independent,  vol. 
45,  p.  I  (Nov.  2,  1893)  ;  Simon  G.  Croswell,  in  North  American 
Review,  vol.  164,  p.  526  (May,  1897)  ;  K.  H.  Claghorn,  in  Atlantic, 
vol.  86,  p.  535   (Oct.  1900). 

10  Their  methods  of  campaign  have  been  considered  in  con- 
nection with  the  illiteracy  test. 


With  Respect  to  Further  Restriction    319 

foreign  governments,  or  whether  entirely  through  volun- 
tary cooperation  of  the  aliens  in  this  country,  is  perhaps 
not  very  material.  In  1896,  when  the  Lodge  bill  first 
passed  Congress,  it  encountered  practically  no  opposition 
except  from  those  financially  interested  in  the  exploitation 
of  immigration,  that  is,  the  transportation  companies. 
Since  that  day,  however,  the  societies  of  aliens  have  be- 
come more  alive  to  the  possibilities  of  restricted  immigra- 
tion, and  have  attempted  to  delay  and  prevent  legislation 
by  petitions  to  Congressmen,  and  in  other  ways.  This  is 
especially  true  of  the  Jews,  whose  benevolent  society,  the 
B'nai  B'rith,  has  taken  a  pronounced  stand  against  re- 
striction. It  is  also  true  of  some  of  the  Irish  societies, 
who  have  probably  been  moved  by  the  fact  that  the  pres- 
ent immigration  is  largely  Roman  Catholic,  and  that  any 
law  restricting  it  will  tend  to  retard  the  Romanization  of 
the  United  States,  an  object  much  desired  by  them.  The 
most  effective  opposition,  however,  has  probably  come 
from  the  German  societies  1X  whose  hostility  to  further 
legislation  has  been  factitiously  exploited  in  the  ways 
already  considered  in  connection  with  the  educational 
test.  It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  many  Germans 
consider  the  present  legislation  ample.  This  may  be  a 
reaction  from  the  paternalism  of  their  native  government. 
Upon  the  whole,  the  opposition  to  further  restriction  is 
better  organized  now  than  it  was  ten  years  ago ;  but,  con- 
sidering the  present  practice  in  the  Senate,  by  which  each 
senator  has  practically  a  veto  on  any  piece  of  legislation, 
the  power  of  an  organization  sufficiently  influential  to  con- 

11  e.  g.  German  Roman  Catholic  Central  Society  of  North 
America ;  North  American  Gymnastic  Society  of  St.  Louis ; 
Liederkranz  of  New  York ;  Maennerchor  of  New  York ;  Bavarian 
Benevolent  Society  of  Cincinnati;  German- American  National 
Union.  So,  also,  the  Polish  National  Societies. 


32O  Immigration  Legislation 

trol  one  or  two  senators  is  enough  to  make  legislation 
very  difficult.  On  the  other  hand,  the  public  is  better  in- 
formed on  the  question  of  immigration  than  formerly, 
and  when  it  is  sufficiently  aroused  adequate  legislation 
can  doubtless  be  secured. 

B.     ETHICAL  ASPECTS   OF   REGULATION 

In  any  discussion  of  the  immigration  question,  there 
are  always  many  persons  who,  admitting  the  legal  power, 
question  the  moral  right  of  a  country  to  exclude  immi- 
grants, at  least  such  as  are  honest  and  well  disposed. 
Among  the  opponents  of  restriction  in  this  country  have 
been  a  number  of  high-minded  and  public-spirited 
men  who  have  based  their  opposition  to  such  legislation 
upon  this  ground.  It  is  desirable,  therefore,  to  consider 
for  a  moment  the  ethical  aspects  of  the  matter.  We  can 
sympathize  with  Prof.  Mayo-Smith  when  he  says: 

"  The  control  of  immigration  must  be  free  from  the 
base  cry  of  '  America  for  the  Americans  '  and  from  any 
narrow  spirit  of  trade  unionism,  or  of  a  selfish  desire  to 
monopolize  the  labor  market.  It  must  find  its  justifica- 
tion in  the  needs  of  the  community,  and  in  the  necessity 
of  selecting  those  elements  which  will  contribute  to  the 
harmonious  development  of  our  civilization."  12 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  we  are  living  in 
a  democracy  which  our  ancestors  established  here,  and 
that  a  democracy  is  a  very  delicate  machine,  requiring 
for  its  successful  operation  certain  political  and  moral 
ideals,  and  the  intelligent  cooperation  of  every  citizen. 
Our  institutions  were  established  by  a  relatively  homo- 
geneous community,  consisting  of  the  best  elements  of 
population  selected  by  the  circumstances  under  which 
they  came  to  the  new  world.  To-day,  much  of  our  im- 

12  Emigration  and  Immigration,  p.  278. 


With  Respect  to  Further  Restriction    321 

migration  is  an  artificial  selection  by  the  transportation 
companies  of  the  worst  elements  of  European  and  Asiatic 
peoples.  If  the  founders  of  the  nation  had  been  of  the 
recent  types,  can  we  suppose  for  a  moment  this  country 
would  enjoy  its  present  civilization?  Even  as  it  is,  we 
have  been  obliged  to  desert  the  political  theories  of  the 
early  days,  and  to  adopt  various  despotic  devices  in  order 
to  control  the  inferior  elements  which  have  come  into  our 
body  politic.13 

The  most  valuable  service  which  the  American  nation 
can  render  to  humanity  at  large  is  to  preserve  and  to  per- 
fect the  institutions  of  its  founders.  Assuming  that  we 
are  aiming  at  making  the  world  as  a  whole  a  better  place 
to  live  in,  we  must  remember  that  we  can  accomplish  this 
through  the  medium  of  the  nation  as  well  as  through  the 
medium  of  the  individual ;  and,  bearing  in  mind  that  the 
birth  rate  in  the  older  countries  soon  restores  in  them  the 
precise  condition  which  obtained  before  immigration  took 
place,  we  find  that  in  many  cases  the  benefit  is  not  to 
the  country  whence  the  immigrants  come,  but  only,  if  at 
all,  to  the  immigrants  themselves.  By  making  this  "  great 
experiment  of  free  laws  and  educated  labor,"  as  General 
Walker  has  called  it,  a  triumphant  success  we  shall  help 
the  world  more  than  by  allowing  indiscriminate  immi- 
gration. 

We  may  go  further,  and  say  it  is  our  duty  toward  the 
world,  not  only  to  preserve  in  this  country  the  conditions 
necessary  to  successful  democracy,  but  to  develop  here 
the  finest  race  of  men  and  the  highest  civilization.  We 

13  John  R.  Commons,  in  Chautauquan.  vol.  38,  p.  34  (Sept. 
1903)  ;  Eliot  Norton,  in  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Political  and  Social  Science,  vol.  24,  p.  162  (July,  1904)  ;  Report 
of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1902,  p.  59; 
Francis  A.  Walker,  Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics, 
vol.  2,  passim. 


322  Immigration  Legislation 

have  in  the  United  States  a  unique  opportunity  to  try 
the  effect  of  hybridizing  race-stocks  upon  an  enormous 
scale.  In  every  other  department,  when  we  try  such 
experiments,  we  take  care  to  select  the  best  specimens  of 
each  stock.  The  race  horse,  the  seedless  orange,  and 
scores  of  valuable  animals  and  plants,  have  been  developed 
as  the  result  of  artificial  selection,  which  would  never 
have  been  brought  into  existence  without  it.  The  human 
reason  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  forces  through  which  the 
Power  of  the  Universe  works,  and  it  is  hard  to  under- 
stand why  the  laissez  faire  advocates  claim  it  should  be 
excluded  from  the  one  field  of  immigration  problems. 

Natural  selection  cannot  be  trusted  of  itself  to  bring 
about  the  best  results.  "  Survival  of  the  fittest "  means 
that  those  survive  who  are  fittest  for  survival,  but  not 
necessarily  fittest  for  any  other  purpose.  This  is  seen 
when  we  compare  a  statesman  or  college  president  who 
has  two  children  and  educates  them  so  that  they  take  use- 
ful and  important  places  in  society,  with  some  poor  drunk- 
ard in  the  slums  who  has  a  dozen  children  and  gives  them 
no  advantages  at  all.  With  modern  sanitation  these  chil- 
dren do  not  die,  as  they  might  have  once,  but  they  start 
with  a  frightful  handicap  and  are  likely  to  be,  to  some 
extent,  weakly,  criminal  and  comparatively  valueless  to 
the  community.  Now,  the  second  man  has  "  survived  " 
in  his  children  six  times  as  much  as  the  first  man,  and 
yet  neither  he  nor  his  children  may  be  as  fit  for  any 
purpose  as  the  first  man  and  his  children.  In  other  words, 
the  mere  test  of  reproductive  power  in  time  is  not  a  test 
of  qualitative  or  teleological  value.  Many  who  perished 
in  the  French  Revolution  and  in  the  other  great  massacres 
of  history  were  undoubtedly  superior  in  every  way  to 
those  who  killed  them.  The  tempest,  the  plague  and  the 
avalanche  destroy  equally  the  just  and  the  unjust. 


With  Respect  to  Further  Restriction     323 

Nature  tries  her  experiments  upon  a  vast  scale  and  can 
afford  to  do  so.  She  has  infinite  time  to  work  in,  and  so 
is  "  careless  of  the  single  life."  But  man  can  hasten  the 
production  of  finer  types.  A  recent  writer  on  New  Zea- 
land attributes  the  success  of  that  country,  which  has  the 
largest  per  capita  wealth  of  any  country  in  the  world,  to 
the  artificial  selection  of  its  early  settlers,  following  the 
policy  of  Gibbon  Wakefield. 

Let  us,  then,  continue  the  benefits  of  that  selection 
which  took  place  in  the  early  days  of  the  nation  by  sift- 
ing the  immigration  of  to-day,  so  that  no  discordant  ele- 
ments shall  enter  to  imperil  the  ideals  and  institutions  of 
our  nation,  and  to  the  end  that  we  may  produce  a  still 
finer  race  to  help  the  world  in  its  progress.  Such  selec- 
tion of  immigration  surely  has  the  highest  ethical  sanc- 
tion. Dr.  Phillips  Brooks,  one  of  the  largest-hearted 
men  of  our  time,  has  stated  this  in  the  following  words : 

"  No  nation,  as  no  man,  has  a  right  to  take  possession 
of  a  choice  bit  of  God's  earth,  to  exclude  the  foreigner 
from  its  territory,  that  it  may  live  more  comfortably  and 
be  a  little  more  at  peace.  But  if  to  this  particular  nation 
there  has  been  given  the  development  of  a  certain  part  of 
God's  earth  for  universal  purposes ;  if  the  world,  in  the 
great  march  of  centuries,  is  going  to  be  richer  for  the 
development  of  a  certain  national  character,  built  up  by 
a  larger  type  of  manhood  here,  then  for  the  world's  sake, 
for  the  sake  of  every  nation  that  would  pour  in  upon  that 
which  would  disturb  that  development,  we  have  a  right 
to  stand  guard  over  it.  We  are  to  develop  here  in 
America  a  type  of  national  character,  we  believe,  for 
which  the  world  is  to  be  richer  always.  It  may  be  the 
last  great  experiment  for  God's  wandering  humanity 
upon  earth.  We  have  a  right  to  stand  guard  over  the 
conditions  of  that  experiment,  letting  nothing  interfere 
with  it,  drawing  into  it  the  richness  that  is  to  come  by  the 
entrance  of  many  men  from  many  nations,  and  they  in 
sympathy  with  our  Constitution  and  laws." 


PART  IV 
CHINESE  IMMIGRATION1 


1  See  Select  List  of  References  on  Chinese  Immigration, 
issued  by  the  Library  of  Congress  (1904)  ;  R.  Mayo-Smith, 
Emigration  and  Immigration,  chapter  xi ;  Report  of  the  In- 
dustrial Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  747-802 ;  Report  of  the  Com- 
missioner-General of  Immigration,  1904,  pp.  136-158;  Dr.  Allen 
McLaughlin,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  66,  p.  117  (Dec., 
1904). 


CHAPTER  XV 

HISTORY    OF   CHINESE    IMMIGRATION    AND 
THE    EXCLUSION   ACTS 

THE  justification  for  treating  Chinese  immigration  in  a 
separate  chapter  is  found  in  the  fact  that  Congress,  until 
recently,  has  always  regarded  it  as  a  separate  subject  for 
legislation,  and  that  the  administration  of  the  Chinese 
Exclusion  Acts,  until  1900,  was  entirely  distinct  from 
that  of  the  immigration  service.2 

Chinese  immigration  began  in  1854,  when  about  13,000 
came  to  this  country  From  that  date  to  1884,  several 
thousand  arrived  each  year,  the  greatest  number  being 
39.463  in  1882.  After  1884,  owing  to  the  Exclusion  Acts, 
immigration  fell  off ;  and  has  only  recently  again  reached 
an  appreciable  figure.  The  number  of  Chinese  arriving 
in  1904  was  4327.  From  1821  to  1904,  inclusive,  the 
total  number  of  Chinese  immigrants  was  322,238.  At  the 
census  of  1900  there  were  89,863  Chinese  in  the  United 
States  proper,  as  compared  with  105.465  in  1880.  Of  the 
number  in  the  country  in  1900,  nearly  68,000  were  in  the 
Western  division,  chiefly  in  California,  and  the  next 
largest  number  was  7170  in  New  York  State. 

The  first  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  China 
was  negotiated  in  1844.  By  that  instrument  and  subse- 
quent treaties  down  to  1868,  Americans  were  given 

2  The  administration  of  the  laws  relating  to  Chinese  was 
transferred  from  the  customs  division  of  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment to  the  Immigration  Bureau  by  Act  of  Feb.  14,  1903,  c,  552, 
32  Stat.  828. 

327 


328  Chinese  Immigration 

various  trading  privileges  in  China,  and  the  right  of 
migration  in  either  direction  was  freely  recognized. 
Large  numbers  of  Chinese  came  in,  and  were  employed 
in  mining  and  in  building  the  Pacific  railroads.  They 
also  took  part  in  farming  and  fruit  raising,  and  a  con- 
siderable number  became  domestic  servants.3  But  it 
did  not  require  many  years  for  a  strong  feeling  against 
the  Chinese  to  arise  in  the  Pacific  States.  This  was  riot 
essentially  due  to  race  prejudice;  the  strange  dress  and 
manners  of  the  Orientals  excited  interest  and  amusement 
rather  than  aversion ;  it  was  due  to  the  gradual  spread- 
ing of  the  conviction  that  the  Chinese  were  displacing 
white  labor.  It  was  pointed  out  that,  though  gen- 
erally peaceable,  temperate  and  industrious,  the  China- 
man's standard  of  living  was  much  inferior  to  that 
of  white  people;  that  he  was  able  to  live  and  to  save 
money  on  a  few  cents  a  day ;  and  that  sooner  or  later  he 
returned  to  China  with  his  savings,  having  indeed  added 
to  the  natural  wealth  of  this  country,  but  having  taken 
no  part  in  its  civic,  intellectual  or  religious  life.4  In 
addition  to  the  class  of  peaceable  Chinese,  there  came 
a  smaller  but  very  troublesome  class  who  settled  in  San 
Francisco  and  other  large  cities  of  the  West,  and  who 
were  members  of  secret  societies  or  "  tongs "  called 
Highbinders.5 

3  As  to  the  Chinese  in  industry  see  Hon.  George  F.  Seward, 
Chinese  Immigration  (1881).    Mr.  Seward  was  sometime  minister 
to  China  and  is  an  enthusiastic  defender  of  the  Chinese. 

4  See  Senate  Reports,  44th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  No.  689  ( 1877) . 

5  These  societies  still  exist.     They  are  formed  chiefly  for  making 
money  by  the  running  of  opium  dens,  houses  of  ill  fame  and 
gambling  resorts.    They  do  not  hesitate  to  murder  any  Chinese 
who  stand  in  the  way  of  their  schemes,  but,  in  general,  they  do 
not  molest  white  people,  fearing  that  an  uprising  against  their 
race  would  be  the  result.     Owing  to  the  fear  with  which  they 
inspire  the  Chinese  they  have  hitherto  been  able  to  escape  the 


The  Exclusion  Acts  329 

Economic  competition  was,  however,  the  principal 
thing  which  first  stirred  up  public  opinion  against  the 
Chinese;  and,  in  1868,  the  Burlingame  treaty  was  nego- 
tiated, in  which,  although  continuing  the  declaration  in 
favor  of  free  migration,  there  was  a  provision  condemn- 
ing involuntary  emigration.  Most  of  the  coolie  traffic 
was,  in  fact,  involuntary,  the  coolies  having  practically 
sold  themselves  for  a  period  of  time  to  certain  immigra- 
tion companies  which  brought  them  over  and  bound  out 
their  services.6  The  treaty  declared  that  the  Chinese 
should  enjoy  the  same  privileges  as  to  travel  and  resi- 
dence as  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  the  most  favored 
nation.  After  this  treaty,  however,  further  immigration 
of  Chinese  resulted  in  still  more  bitter  feeling  against 
them,  and  in  1876  both  political  parties  had  planks  in 
their  platforms  in  favor  of  Chinese  exclusion.  Even 
before  this  time,  there  were  State  statutes  and  city 
ordinances  on  the  Pacific  coast  directed  against  the 
Chinese.  Some  of  these  required  that  all  foreigners 
should  pay  a  heavy  tax  for  the  privilege  of  mining,  and 
the  evidence  seems  to  show  that  these  were  enforced 
against  Chinamen  and  not  against  others.  Other  heavy 
taxes  were  directed  against  Chinese  laundries.  Ordi- 
nances also  forbade  the  wearing  of  queues,  and  required 
those  letting  lodgings  to  furnish  certain  air  space.  The 
latter  were  enforced  only  against  the  Chinese. 

The  State  of  California  made  several  efforts  to  stop 

law.  They  procure  any  evidence  they  desire  to  clear  their 
members  and  agents,  or  to  implicate  their  enemies.  Indeed,  it 
is  sometimes  said  that  instead  of  murdering  an  enemy  they  use 
the  process  of  the  criminal  law  by  means  of  perjured  testimony. 

As  to  the  operation  of  these  societies  see  Report  of  the 
Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  pp.  762-802. 

6  The  early  acts  prohibiting  the  coolie  traffic  have  been  already 
mentioned.  See  chapter  x.  c,  p.  210. 


330  Chinese  Immigration 

Chinese  immigration  altogether ;  but  these  were  declared 
unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.7  In  1876,  a  joint  committee  of  Congress  investi- 
gated the  subject  of  Chinese  immigration  and  sent  in  a 
report  strongly  unfavorable  to  the  Chinese.8  In  1878  a 
bill  to  restrict  Chinese  immigration  to  fifteen  persons 
on  any  one  vessel  passed  both  Houses,  but  was  vetoed 
by  President  Hayes9  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  viola- 
tion of  the  Burlingame  treaty.  Thereupon,  an  attempt 
was  made  to  modify  that  treaty,  and  in  1880  it  was 
agreed  that  the  United  States  might  limit  or  suspend  the 
coming  of  Chinese  laborers.  Accordingly,  in  1882,  Con- 
gress passed  an  act  to  suspend  the  immigration  of 
Chinese  laborers  for  ten  years.10  It  was  provided,  how- 
ever, that  the  act  should  not  apply  to  Chinese  laborers 
who  were  in  the  United  States  on  a  certain  date  or  who 
should  come  in  before  the  expiration  of  ninety  days 
after  the  passage  of  the  act.  It  also  provided  that  if  the 
Chinese  desired  to  leave  the  United  States  they  could 
procure  a  certificate  identifying  them,  on  presentation  of 
which  they  should  be  allowed  to  come  in.  In  1884,  this 
certificate  was  made  the  sole  evidence  of  the  right  of  the 
Chinese  to  return.11  Under  these  acts  and  the  treaty 
of  1880,  "  Chinese  laborers "  included  both  manual 
laborers  and  those  skilled  in  some  art  or  trade  liable  to 
interfere  with  the  industries  of  the  country,  and  covered 
practically  all  immigration  other  than  that  for  teaching, 
trade,  travel,  study  and  curiosity.12  The  Act  of  1884 

7  Chy  Lung  v.  Freeman,  92  U.  S.  275. 

8  Senate  Reports,  44th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  No.  689. 

9  House  Executive  Documents,  45th  Cong.,  3   Sess.,  No.   102, 
veto  of  H.  R.  2423. 

10  Act  of  May  6,  1882,  c.  126,  22  Stat.  58. 

11  Act  of  July  5,  1884,  c.  220,  23  Stat.  115. 

12  Lee  Ah  Yin  v.  United  States,  116  Fed.  Rep.  614. 


The  Exclusion  Acts  331 

also  required  that  the  exempt  classes  should  pre- 
sent certificates  from  the  Chinese  authorities  identify- 
ing them.  In  spite  of  these  acts,  a  considerable  number 
of  Chinese  continued  to  come;  many,  no  doubt,  being 
smuggled  in,  as  they  are  at  the  present  day,  across  the 
borders.  Numerous  outrages  took  place  against  Chinese 
laborers  in  several  States  and  Territories,  and  Congress, 
in  response  to  several  messages  from  the  President,  ap- 
propriated various  amounts  of  money  as  indemnity. 

In  1886,  China  herself  undertook  to  prohibit  the  com- 
ing of  laborers  to  this  country.  A  treaty  was  agreed 
upon  prohibiting,  with  certain  exceptions,  the  immigra- 
tion of  Chinese  laborers  absolutely  for  twenty  years.  But, 
owing  to  delay  on  the  part  of  China  in  the  consideration 
of  the  treaty,  Congress  yielded  to  popular  clamor  and 
passed  the  Act  of  1888  to  prevent  the  coming  of  Chinese 
laborers.13  This  act  forbade  any  Chinese  person, 
whether  a  subject  of  China  or  of  some  other  power,  to 
enter  the  United  States  except  as  therein  provided. 
Chinese  officials,  teachers,  students,  merchants  or  travel- 
ers for  pleasure  or  curiosity  were  to  be  permitted 
to  land  provided  they  obtained  the  permission  of  their 
home  government,  and  such  permission  and  their  personal 
identification  were  to  be  shown  by  certificates  made  out  by 
the  diplomatic  or  consular  representative  of  the  United 
States  at  the  place  from  which  the  person  came.  The 
term  "  Chinese  laborers "  was  defined  to  cover  both 
skilled  and  unskilled  laborers  and  Chinese  employed  in 
mining.  The  return  of  Chinese  laborers  after  leaving 
the  United  States  was  forbidden,  except  that  the  laborer 
having  a  wife,  child  or  parent  in  the  United  States  or 
property  therein  to  the  value  of  $1000,  or  debts  due  him 
to  such  an  amount,  might  return  within  one  year. 

13  Act  of  Sept.  13,  1888,  c.  1015,  25  Stat.  476. 


332  Chinese  Immigration 

Chinese  intending  to  leave  were  required  to  obtain 
certificates  of  identification,  and  were  not  to  return  with- 
out producing  them.  On  returning,  they  could  enter 
only  at  certain  specified  ports.  The  certificate  was  the 
sole  evidence  of  the  right  to  return.  The  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  was  authorized  to  make  regulations  to 
carry  out  the  act.  Penalties  were  also  provided  in  the 
act  for  unlawfully  bringing  Chinese  in,  and  for  counter- 
feiting certificates.  Any  Chinese  or  person  of  Chinese 
descent  found  unlawfully  in  the  United  States  could  be 
arrested  on  the  complaint  of  any  one  and  deported.  An 
appeal  lay  from  any  commissioner  to  the  judge  of  the 
District  Court. 

By  another  act,  passed  in  i888,14  it  was  provided  that 
Chinese  laborers  who  were  absent  should  not  be  allowed 
to  return  even  though  they  departed  upon  the  faith  of 
prior  statutes  and  that  no  more  return  certificates  should 
be  issued.  In  1892  the  so-called  "  Geary  Act "  was 
passed,15  continuing  in  force  all  anti-Chinese  legislation 
for  a  period  of  ten  years.  It  further  provided  that  Chi- 
nese arrested  and  adjudged  not  entitled  to  remain  in  the 
United  States  should  be  removed  to  China,  unless  it  ap- 
peared that  they  were  citizens  of  some  other  country. 
It  also  went  so  far  as  to  put  upon  Chinamen  wrhen  ar- 
rested, the  burden  of  proving  their  right  to  remain.  This 
clause  was  held  constitutional ; 16  but  a  section  providing 
for  imprisonment  at  hard  labor  for  a  year  before  de- 
portation was  held  void  unless  there  were  a  judicial 
trial.17  Chinese  laborers  in  the  United  States  were  re- 

"Act  of  Oct.  i,  1888,  c.  1064,  25  Stat.  504. 
16  Act  of  May  5,  1892,  c.  60,  27  Stat.  25.     Amended  by  Act  of 
Nov.  3,  1893,  c.  14,  28  Stat.  7. 

16  Li  Sing  v.  United  States,  180  U.  S.  486. 

17  Wong  Wing  v.  United  States,  163  U.  S.  223. 


The  Exclusion  Acts  333 

quired  by  the  act  to  obtain  certificates  of  residence 
within  six  months  after  its  passage.  Anyone  found 
after  the  expiration  of  the  six  months  without  a  cer- 
tificate of  residence  was  to  be  deemed  unlawfully  in 
the  United  States  and  arrested  and  deported  unless  he 
could  show  some  good  excuse  for  not  complying  with 
the  law  and  also,  by  at  least  one  witness,  other  than 
Chinese,  that  he  was  a  resident  of  the  country  at  the 
time  of  the  passage  of  the  act.  No  Chinese  convicted  of 
felony  was  to  be  permitted  to  register. 

The  Act  of  November  3,  1893, 18  defined  more  fully  the 
terms  "  merchant  "  and  "  laborer."  It  provided  that  mer- 
chants must  establish  by  two  witnesses,  other  than  Chi- 
nese, that  they  had  conducted  business  in  the  United 
States  for  at  least  one  year  before  leaving  and  had  not 
engaged  in  manual  labor  since ;  and  that  certificates 
should  be  accompanied  by  photographs. 

In  1894,  a  new  treaty  was  negotiated  with  China, 
intended  to  cover  the  same  ground  as  the  Geary  Act, 
but  repealing  the  provision  of  the  Act  of  1888,  which 
forbade  Chinese  laborers  who  had  departed  to  return 
to  this  country.  This  treaty  was  to  last  for  ten  years. 
It  therefore  expired  in  1904,  and  has  not  yet  been 
renewed. 

Barring  some  statutes  dealing  with  detail,  the  next  en- 
actment was  that  of  I9O2.19  This  continued  all  Chinese 
legislation  until  otherwise  provided ;  extended  it  to  the 
immigration  of  Chinese  into  island  territory  of  the 
United  States,  and  prohibited  alien  Chinese  from  emi- 
grating from  such  island  territory  to  the  mainland  of  the 
United  States,  or  from  islands  to  other  islands  not  of 
the  same  group.  The  act  also  provided  for  certificates 

18  C.   14,  28  Stat.  7. 

19  Act  of  April  22,  1902,  c.  641,  32  Stat.  176. 


334  Chinese  Immigration 

of  residence  for  Chinese  in  the  insular  territory.  Though 
the  treaty  of  1894  expired  in  1904,  by  an  act  of  April  27, 
1904,2°  the  act  of  1902  was  amended  so  as  to  extend  all 
laws  affecting  Chinese  in  force  on  April  29,  1902,  without 
limitation  of  time. 

Harsh  and  drastic  as  some  of  the  foregoing  legisla- 
tion seems  to  the  average  man  not  familiar  with  the 
situation  on  the  Pacific  coast,  it  is  none  too  stringent  to 
accomplish  the  purpose  in  view.  The  extent  to  which 
courts,  government  officers,  and  the  public  have  been 
cheated  and  imposed  upon  by  Chinese  mendacity  and 
duplicity  passes  belief.  Prior  to  the  photograph  require- 
ment above  referred  to,  one  hundred  cases  of  pawned 
certificates  were  found  in  one  town,  and  a  good  business 
was  being  carried  on  in  the  forging  of  certificates.  In 
1901  nearly  one-third  of  those  professing  to  be  exempt 
from  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Acts  were  found  to  be 
fraudulent.21 

The  result  of  the  various  acts  and  decisions  is,  that 
all  Chinese  are  now  excluded  except  the  following 
classes:  (i)  Officials;  (2)  teachers;  (3)  students;  (4) 
merchants;  (5)  travellers  for  curiosity  or  pleasure.  (Per- 
sons of  these  classes  must,  under  the  Act  of  1884, 
present  certificates  of  identification  from  the  Chinese 
government  or  the  government  of  which  they  are  sub- 
jects.) (6)  Chinese  merchants  domiciled  here  who  have 
temporarily  departed.  (These  must  present  the  certifi- 
cates required  by  the  Act  of  1893.)  (7)  the  minor  chil- 
dren of  domiciled  merchants;  (8)  wives  of  officials. 
(These  two  classes  have  been  added  by  the  courts.) 

20  C.  1630,  33  Stat.  428. 

21  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  1901, 
pp.  48-52.     Cp.  ibid.,  1902,  pp.  73,  74;  ibid.,  1903,  pp.  97-995  ibid., 
1904,  pp.  149-158. 


The  Exclusion  Acts  335 

(9)  personal  servants  of  officials;  (10)  Chinese  laborers 
registered  under  the  Geary  Act.  With  these  should  also 
be  mentioned  Chinese  born  in  the  United  States  and  not 
subject  to  the  Exclusion  Acts. 

Of  the  total  of  4327  Chinese  persons  arriving  in  1904, 
306  were  debarred  and  returned,  chiefly  as  liable  to 
become  public  charges.  Nearly  all  of  the  arrivals 
were  males  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  forty-five. 
The  illiteracy  of  those  over  fourteen  was  8.2  per  cent., 
which  was  one-third  that  of  the  Japanese,  and  one-sixth 
that  of  the  Syrians.  This  is  what  we  should  expect,  as 
the  Chinese  allowed  to  come  in  belong  to  the  better 
classes,  or  have  resided  here  for  some  time.  Of  the 
total  number,  2946  had  been  in  the  United  States  before. 
The  total  money  shown  was  $86,900,  or  about  $20  per 
capita. 

Upon  the  general  policy  of  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Acts 
there  is  a  hopeless  difference  of  opinion.  Organized 
labor  is  unalterably  opposed  to  the  admission  of  Chinese 
labor;  the  railroads,  some  manufacturers,  and  many 
planters,  especially  in  the  South,  would  like  the  benefit 
of  its  cheapness.  Recently,  the  desire  to  obtain  free 
entrance  to  Chinese  markets  for  American  manufac- 
tures has  led  to  an  agitation  for  the  repeal  or  modi- 
fication of  the  acts  which  are  offensive  to  the  Chinese. 
Many  persons  think  the  Chinese  should  be  put  under  the 
immigration  laws  now  applied  to  other  races.  Others  say 
that  the  Chinese  are  so  essentially  different  in  character 
and  habits  even  from  inferior  classes  of  Europeans,  that 
they  cannot  be  put  upon  the  same  footing.  It  seems 
probable  that  the  acts  may  be  modified,  but  their  repeal 
in  the  near  future  is  unlikely. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX  I 


STATISTICAL  TABLES 
TABLE  I 

IMMIGRATION    BY    DECADES,    l82I    TO    IQOO 

(From  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  p.  267,  and 
Reports  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration.) 

1821  to  1830 143,439 

1831  to  1840 S99J25 

1841  to  1850 1,713,251 

1851  to  1860 2,598,214 

1861  to  1870 2,314,824 

1871  to  1880 2,812,191 

1881  to  1800 5,246,613 

1891  to  1900 3,687,564 

1901  to  1905   (five  years) 3,833,076 


Total,  1821-1905 22,948,297 

TABLE  II 

ANNUAL  IMMIGRATION    1820-1905  * 

(From  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30,  p.  xi.,  and  reports  of 
the  Immigration  Bureau.) 

Year  ending  Sept.  jo 

1820 8.385 

l821 9,127 

1822 6,911 

1823 6,354 

1824 7,912 

1825 10,199 

1826 10,837 

*Alien  passengers    1820   to    1868;   immigrants  1869  to   1905. 

339 


34°  Appendix 


Year  ending  Sept.  30 

1827 18,875 

1828 27,382 

1829 22,520 

1830 23,322 

1831 22,633 

15  months  ending  Dec.  31 

1832 60,482 

Year  ending  Dec.  31 

1833 58,640 

1834 65,365 

1835 45-374 

1836 76,242 

1837 79,340 

1838 38,914 

1839 68.069 

1840 84,066 

1841 80,289 

1842 104,565 

9  months  ending  Sept.  30 

1843 52,406 

Year  ending  Sept.  30 

1844 78,615 

1845 1 14.371 

1846 154,416 

1847 234,968 

1848 226,527 

1849 297,024 

1850 310,004 

3  months  ending  Dec.  31 

1850 59,976 

Year  ending  Dec  }i 

1851 379,466 

1852 371,603 

1853 368.645 

1854 427,833 

1855 200,877 

1856 200,436 

1857 251,306 

1858 123,126 

1859 121,282 

1860 v 153,640 

1861 91,918 

1862 91,985 

1863 176,282 

1864 I93,4i8 

1865 248,120 

1866 318,568 

1867 315,722 


Appendix  341 


6  months  ending  June  30 

1868 138,840 

Year  ending  June  30 

1869 352,768 

iS/0 387,203 

1871 321,350 

1872 404,806 

1873 459,803 

1874 313,339 

1875 227,498 

1876 169,986 

1877 141,857 

1 878 138,469 

1879 177,826 

1880 457,257 

1881 669,431 

1882 788,992 

1883 603,322 

1884 518,592 

1885 395,346 

1886 334,203 

1887 490,109 

1888 546,889 

1889 444,427 

1890 455,302 

1891 560,319 

1892 623,084 

1893 439,730 

1894 285,631 

1895 258,536 

1896 343,267 

1897 230,832 

1898 229,299 

1899 3H,7r5 

1900 448,572 

1901 487,918 

1902 648,743 

1903 857,046 

1904 812,870 

1905 1,026,499 


342 


Appendix 


TABLE  III 

NUMBER  AND  PERCENTAGE  OF  IMMIGRANTS  l82I  TO  IQ03  AND  IN  IQ03 

(From  Special  Consular  Reports,  vol.  30,  p.  viii.) 


Country  of  latt 
permanent  residence 


1811  to 
Total 
number 


1901 

Per- 
centage 


1905 
Total 
number 


l8zi  to  190; 
Grand 
total 


Per- 
centage 

Austria-Hungary.  .  ..  1,316,914  6.46  206,011  24.04  1,522,925 

Belgium 68,211        .33     68,211 

Denmark 204,502  I          204,502 

England  &  Wales 2,730,037  13.43  26,219  3.06  2,766,156 

France 408,619  2          408.619 

Germany 5,098,005  24.98  40,086  4.67  5,138,091 

Ireland 3,944,269  19.33  35,3°o  4.12  3,979,569 

Italy 1,358,507  6.66  230,622  26.91  1,589,219 

Netherlands 137,323        -67     137,323 

Norway  &  Sweden. ..  1,334,931  6.54  70,489  8.22  1,405,420 

Russia  &  Poland 1,106,362  5.42  136,093  15.89  1,242,455 

Scotland 388,506  1.9       388,506 

Spain  &  Portugal 84,381         .42     84,381 

Switzerland 208,963  1.02     208,963 

All  other  Europe 82,321        .4       82,321 

Total   Europe 18,481,841  90.56  744,820  19,226,661 

British  N.  America. ..  1,050,682  5.16     1,050,682 

Mexico 29,033        .14     29,033 

Central   America 3,372        .02     3,372 

South  America 14,417        .07     14,417 

West  Indies 134,859        .66     134,859 

Islands  of  the  Atlantic  35,706        .17     35,7o6 

Total  Western 

Hemisphere .  .  .  1,268,069  6.22     1,268,069 

China 317,929  1.56     317,929 

All  other  Asia 103,161         .5       103,161 

Total   Asia 421,090      2.06    421,190 

Africa 2,792        .01      2,792 

All  other  countries. ..  234,885       1.15  112,226  13.09  347,111 


Total 20,408,677  loo         857,046  loo       21,265,723 


*  Classification   of   immigrants   in    1903    confined   to   only    seven    European 
nationalities. 


Appendix 


343 


TABLE  IV 

PER    CENT.    OF    NATIONALITIES    IN    TOTAL    IMMIGRATION 

(From  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  15,  p.  275.) 

England,  Scandi-  Russia 

Scotland  navian  Austria          and 

Period     and  Wales    Ireland    Germany  Countries  All  others       Italy      Hungary     Poland 


uecacies 
1821-50 

r  er  ceni. 
17 

35 

4.8 

0.2 

42  6 

0.3 

0.06 

1831-40 

ii.S 

35 

25 

.5 

26.6 

.4 

.1 

1841-50 

15.5 

46 

45 

.8 

12.6 

,i 

.°4 

1851-60 

16 

35 

37 

.9 

10.7 

.3 

.06 

1861-70 

26 

«9 

34 

5 

15 

.5 

o.3 

.2 

1871-80 

19 

16 

26 

8 

*4.5 

2. 

4.5 

2 

1881-90 

14.5 

>4.5 

28 

ii 

16 

7. 

7 

5 

1891-1900 

7.4 

15 

"3-7 

IO.I 

3.8 

16.7 

16. 

16.  J 

TABLE  V 

DISTRIBUTION    OF    RECENT    IMMIGRANTS    IN    CERTAIN    STATES 

(Compiled  from  Censuses  of  1890  and  1900.) 
Natives  of  Poland  in  Certain  Cities  and  Urban  Counties. 


Number 

Illinois  : 
Cook  County  (Chicago)  ......     25,336 

Michigan  : 
Wayne  County  (Detroit)  ---- 


1890 

Per  cent. 

of  all  in 

State 


87.7 


5,599        35.7 


954 
1,315 


28.6 


Massachusetts : 

Boston 

Cities  above  25,000  inhabitants 

in  1800 

Cities  above  25,000  inhabitants 

in  1900  3 

New  York : 

New  York  City  * 

Erie  County   (Buffalo) 8,929 

Cities  above  25,000  inhabitants 

in  1890 19,426 

Cities  above  25,000  inhabitants 
in   1900 4    

8  The  number  of  foreign-born  inhabitants,  in  1890,  of  cities  which  had 
not  then  25,000  people,  is  not  obtainable. 

4  The  number  of  foreign-born  inhabitants,  in  1890,  of  the  present  area 
of  New  York  city,  cannot  be  determined. 


85-5 


1900 
Per  cent, 
of  all  in 
Number         State 

62,008 

91-3 

14,236 

50.3 

3,832 

17.8 

10,367 

48.3 

10,449 

48.6 

32,873 
19,776 

47-1 
28.4 

57,095 

81.9 

58,229 

83-5 

344 


Appendix 


Wisconsin  : 
Milwaukee  County  

1890 

Per  cent, 
of  all  in 
Number           State 

IO,O66          57.0 

Cities  and  Urban 
2,723       Si-S 

1900 

Per  cent. 
of  all  in 
Number       State 

17,644       55-5 
Counties. 

10,657        55-8 
10,832        56.7 

16,915        72.0 

13,738        47-7 
18,592        64.6 
19,442        67.5 

11,896        28.4 
9,646        23.0 
5,798        13.8 

145,433       79-8 
157,856       86.6 
158,463       87.0 

3,193       28.0 
2,260        19.8 

7-237       634 
8,030       70.4 

24,178          84-2 

Natives  of  Italy  in  Certain 

Connecticut  : 
Cities  above  25,000  inhabitants 
in  1890  

Cities  above  25,000  inhabitants 
in  1900 

Illinois  : 

5,734 

4,718 
5,936 

3,598 
3,039 
1,198 

53,533 

71.4 

58.5 
73-6 

277 
23-4 

9-2 

83.5 

Massachusetts  : 
Boston  

Cities  above  25,000  inhabitants 
in  1890  

Cities  above  25,000  inhabitants 
in  1900  8  

New  Jersey: 
Essex  County  (Newark,  etc.). 
Hudson  County  (Jersey  City, 
etc  ) 

Passaic     County     (  Paterson, 
etc.)  .  , 

New  York: 
New  York  City  *  

Cities  above  25,000  inhabitants 
in  1890  

Cities  above  25,000  inhabitants 
in  1900  ' 

Connecticut  : 
New  Haven  

1,160 
492 
1,879 

38.3 
16.3 
62.1 

Hartford  

Cities  above  25,000  in  1800.  .  . 
Cities  above  25,000  in  1900  5.  . 

Illinois: 
Chicago.  . 

7.6S.T 

91.4 

5  The  number  of  foreign-born,  in  1890,  in  cities  which  had  not  then 
25,000  people,  is  not  obtainable. 

•The  number  of  foreign-born  inhabitants,  in  1890,  of  the  present  area 
pf  New  Yprjc  city,  cannot  be  determined. 


Appendix  345 

Natives  of  Russia  in  Certain  Cities  and  Urban  Counties. 

1890  1900 

Per  cent.  Per  cent, 

of  all  ia  of  all  in 

Number          State  Number       State 

Massachusetts : 

Boston 4,305  5&8  14,995  55-6 

Cities  above  25,000  in  1890...  5,831  79-6  23,819  88.3 

Cities  above  25,000  in  IOOOT..    24,170  89.7 

New  Jersey : 

Essex  County  (Newark,  etc.)       1,348        25.3          5,877        29.8 
Hudson  County  (Jersey  City, 

etc) 869        16.3          4,592        23.3 

Passaic  County    ( Paterson, 

etc.) 546        10.3         2,422        12.3 

Union    County    (Elizabeth, 

etc.) 364         6.8         1,251         6.3 

New  York: 

New  York  City 8 155,201  93.7 

Cities  above  25.000  in  1890...  56,076  95.9  161,354  974 

Cities  above  25,000  in  1900  8. .    161,491  97.5 

Pennsylvania_ : 
Philadelphia 7,879        45.5        28,951        56.8 

7  The  number  of  foreign-born,  in  1890,  in  cities  which  had  not  then 
25,000  people,  is  not  obtainable. 

*  The  number  of  foreign-born  inhabitants,  in  1890,  of  the  present  area 
of  New  York  city,  cannot  be 


346  Appendix 


1.97 

6.41 
9-45 
1-95 

12.72 
44-44 
5I.H 

50.28 

CHICAGO. 

NEW  YORK. 

1 
PHILADELPHIA. 

I 

13-52 
30.70 
30-73 
22.95 

TABLE  VI 


RACIAL    COMPOSITION    OF    CITY    SLUMS 

(Compiled  from  Seventh  Special  Report  of  the  Commissoner 
of  Labor,  pp.  44,  120,  160-164.) 

Austria-Hungary,  Italy,  Poland,  United  Kingdom,  France,  Germany, 

and  Russia  and  Scandinavia 

Per  cent.  Per  cent.  Per  cent.  Per  cent, 

of  Total  of  Slum  of  Total  of  Slum 

Population        Population  Population        Population 

BALTIMORE. 

27.29 

10.64 
8.64 
8.44 

Note:  that  Southeastern  Europe  furnishes  3  times  as  many  inhabitants 
as  Northwestern  Europe  to  the  slums  of  Baltimore,  19  times  as  many  to 
the  slums  of  New  York,  20  times  as  many  to  the  slums  of  Chicago,  71 
times  as  many  to  the  slums  of  Philadelphia. 

The  comparative  degree  of  illiteracy  of  foregoing  elements  of 
slums  is  as  follows  for  the  above-mentioned  four  cities : 

Scandinavia 5-6% 

Great   Britain., 7.0 

France 10.2 

Germany 21.9 

Ireland 40.4 

Average  of  Group 25.5 

Austria-Hungary 16.6 

Russia 37.1 

Poland 46.1 

Italy 66.4 

Average  of  Group 54.5 

Native  Americans 7.4 


Appendix  347 


TABLE  VII 

THE    BIRTH    RATES    OF     NATIVE-BORN     AND    FOREIGN-BORN    IN     MAS- 
SACHUSETTS,   RHODE    ISLAND    AND    FOREIGN    COUNTRIES 

(Compiled  by  R.  R.  Kuczynski.) 

Births  to 
1000  Females 
of  child-bearing 
COUNTRIES  AND  STATES  Years  age  (15-50  yrs.) 

Hungary 1888-93  168.4 

Austria 1888-93  147-4 

Germany 1893-97  I44-I 

Massachusetts  (foreign-born) 1893-97  141.3 

Netherlands 1887-92  139.7 

Rhode  Island    (foreign-born) 1893-97  135-4 

Finland 1888-93  134.0 

Denmark 1887-92  127.0 

Norway 1888-93  I24-9 

Scotland 1889-93  120.2 

Belgium 1889-93  120.2 

England  and  Wales 1889-93  118.2 

Sweden 1888-93  H5-8 

Massachusetts    ( State) 1893-97  94-4 

Rhode  Island   (State) 1893-97  9M 

Ireland 1889-93  90.6 

France  1894-98  85.1 

Massachusetts    (native-born) 1893-97  65.0 

Rhode  Island  (native-born) 1893-97  63.0 


APPENDIX  II 


RESOLUTIONS  ADOPTED   BY  THE  NATIONAL  IMMI- 
GRATION CONFERENCE  CALLED  BY  THE 
NATIONAL  CIVIC  FEDERATION, 
DECEMBER  8,  1905  » 

A.    REGARDING  WHITE  IMMIGRATION. 
I. 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  the  National  Conference  on 
Immigration  heartily  indorse  the  wise  suggestions  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  in  his  annual  message  to  the  Congress, 
regarding  the  enforcement  and  amendment  of  the  laws  concerning 
immigration,  and  regarding  an  international  conference  to  deal 
with  the  question.  They  urge  upon  the  Congress  the  speedy 
passage  of  the  laws  required  to  put  these  recommendations  into 
effect. 

II. 

Resolved,  That  the  immigration  laws  should  be  amended  in  the 
following  particulars : 

(a)  By  placing  in  the  excluded  classes  "  feeble-minded  per- 
sons " ;  "  imbeciles  " ; 

(fe)  By  carefully  defining  the  term  "persons  likely  to  become 
public  charges,"  so  as  to  permit  the  exclusion  of  those  persons  of 
permanently  enfeebled  vitality,  whether  this  condition  is  due  to 
accident,  inheritance,  disease,  advanced  age  or  other  defect; 

(c)  By  making  provision  so  that  the  air-space  allotted  to  each 
person  in  ships  carrying  immigrants  be  not  less  than  two  hundred 
cubic  feet,  instead  of  one  hundred  and  ten  cubic  feet  for  the  main 
deck,  as  now  provided,  and  that  the  space  be  proportionately  in- 
creased for  the  other  decks; 

(d)  By  making  such  provisions  as  shall  compel  the  service  of 
food  at  tables  with  seats,  in  compartments  not  used  for  sleeping. 

1  This  conference  was  composed  of  delegates  appointed  by  the  governors 
of  the  several  States,  Territories  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  by 
various  commercial,  educational  and  charitable  organizations, 

348 


Appendix  349 

in. 

Resolved,  That  the  penalty  of  $100  now  imposed  on  the  steam- 
ship companies  for  bringing  diseased  persons  to  the  United  States 
be  also  imposed  for  bringing  in  any  person  excluded  by  law. 


IV. 

Resolved,  That  the  Government  of  the  United  States  provide 
some  methods  of  investigation,  examination  and  certification  of 
foreign  immigrants  in  their  home  countries  or  at  the  port  of  de- 
parture, so  as  more  certainly  to  avoid  the  hardship  of  deportation 
by  preventing  the  embarkation  of  persons  excluded  by  law  from 
admission  into  the  United  States. 


V. 

Resolved,  That  in  order  to  prevent  the  undue  concentration  of 
immigrants  in  some  parts  of  our  country,  and  to  encourage  their 
better  distribution  in  sections  where  conditions  may  be  more 
favorable,  the  United  States  Government  afford  to  the  separate 
States  and  Territories  opportunities  to  furnish  to  incoming  immi- 
grants at  the  ports  of  entry  and  also  so  far  as  it  may  be  found 
practicable,  before  their  arrival  in  this  country,  trustworthy  in- 
formation regarding  the  material  resources  and  the  conditions  of 
life  and  labor  which  confront  the  followers  of  different  occupa- 
tions in  the  various  States  and  Territories. 


VI. 

Resolved,  That  we  recommend  to  the  Congress  that  it  furnish 
sufficient  means  to  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration  to 
improve  the  facilities  for  handling  immigration  at  the  South  At- 
lantic and  Gulf  ports,  in  order  thereby  to  promote  the  better  dis- 
tribution of  immigration  over  the  undeveloped  lands  of  the  South 
and  Southwest. 


VII. 

Resolved,  That  on  account  of  the  large  number  of  alien  immi- 
grants who  are  admitted  contrary  to  law  because  of  the  possession 
of  naturalization  papers  fraudulently  obtained,  this  conference 
recommends  that  all  naturalization  certificates  should  contain  a 
description  of  the  applicants  similar  to  that  provided  in  the  case 
of  passports  issued  by  the  Department  <?f  State, 


350  Appendix 

VIII. 

Resolved,  That  we  recommend  to  the  Congress  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Commission,  with  competent  authority,  to  be  appointed 
by  the  President,  to  investigate  the  subject  of  immigration  in  all 
its  relations,  including  the  violations  and  evasions  of  the  present 
law;  and  to  report  to  the  President  the  results  of  its  investiga- 
tions with  recommendations. 


IX. 

Resolved,  That  we  heartily  commend  the  National  Civic  Feder- 
ation upon  its  initiative  in  calling  together  this  First  National 
Conference  on  the  important  subject  of  immigration;  and  in  order 
that  this  work  may  be  advantageously  continued,  we  request  the 
Civic  Federation  to  appoint  a  standing  committee  on  that  subject. 


B.    REGARDING  CHINESE  IMMIGRATION. 

Resolved,  That  we  heartily  indorse  the  position  taken  by  the 
President  that  the  Chinese  exclusion  laws,  forbidding  the  admis- 
sion of  laborers,  ought  to  be  maintained  and  rigidly  and  honestly 
enforced. 

Resolved,  That  a  rigid  examination  of  all  incoming  passengers 
from  the  Orient  be  made  at  the  port  of  departure,  as  recommended 
for  incomers  at  the  Atlantic  ports,  so  as  to  eliminate  entirely,  if 
possible,  the  hardships  of  detention  and  deportation. 

Resolved,  That  we  request  Congress  to  provide  better  facilities 
for  inspection  and  examination  at  the  Pacific  Coast  ports  similar 
to  those  provided  at  Atlantic  ports. 

Resolved,  That  our  laws  and  treaties  should  be  so  framed  and 
administered  as  carefully  to  except  Chinese  students,  business  and 
professional  men  of  all  kinds,  not  only  merchants,  but  bankers, 
doctors,  manufacturers,  professors  and  travelers,  from  the  action 
and  enforcement  of  the  exclusion  laws. 


APPENDIX  III 

UNITED   STATES   IMMIGRATION   LAWS* 

ACT    OF   FEBRUARY   26,    1885 

ORIGINAL  CONTRACT  LABOR  ACT 

AN  ACT  to  prohibit  the  importation  and  immigration  of  for- 
eigners and  aliens  under  contract  or  agreement  to  perform  labor 
in  the  United  States,  its  Territories,  and  the  District  of 
Columbia. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  from  and 
after  the  passage  of  this  act  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  any  person, 
company,  partnership,  or  corporation,  in  any  manner  whatsoever, 
to  prepay  the  transportation,  or  in  any  way  assist  or  encourage 
the  importation  or  migration  of  any  alien  or  aliens,  any  foreigner 
or  foreigners,  into  the  United  States,  its  Territories,  or  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  under  contract  or  agreement,  parol  or  special, 
express  or  implied,  made  previous  to  the  importation  or  migration 
of  such  alien  or  aliens,  foreigner  or  foreigners,  to  perform  labor 
or  service  of  any  kind  in  the  United  States,  its  Territories,  or  the 
District  of  Columbia. 

SEC.  2.  That  all  contracts  or  agreements,  express  or  implied, 
parol  or  special,  which  may  hereafter  be  made  by  and  between 
any  person,  company,  partnership,  or  corporation,  and  any  for- 
eigner or  foreigners,  alien  or  aliens,  to  perform  labor  or  service 
or  having  reference  to  the  performance  of  labor  or  service  by  any 
person  in  the  United  States,  its  Territories,  or  the  District  of 
Columbia,  previous  to  the  migration  or  importation  of  the  person 
or  persons  whose  labor  or  service  is  contracted  for  into  the  United 
States,  shall  be  utterly  void  and  of  no  effect. 

SEC.  3.  That  for  every  violation  of  any  of  the  provisions  of 
section  one  of  this  act  the  person,  partnership,  company,  or  cor- 
poration violating  the  same,  by  knowingly  assisting,  encouraging 
or  soliciting  the  migration  or  importation  of  any  alien  or  aliens, 

1  The  Contract  Labor  Acts  and  the  Act  of  March  3,  1903  are  the  prin- 
cipal immigration  laws  now  in  force;  the  former  are  in  force  only  so  far 
as  not  inconsistent  with  the  latter.  A  pamphlet  containing  all  the  Acts 
since  1881  and  the  regulations,  can  be  obtained  free  of  charge  from  the 
Immigration  Bureau,  Washington,  D.  C. 

351 


352  Appendix 

foreigner  or  foreigners,  into  the  United  States,  its  Territories,  or 
the  District  of  Columbia,  to  perform  labor  or  service  of  any  kind 
under  contract  or  agreement,  express  or  implied,  parol  or  special, 
with  such  alien  or  aliens,  foreigner  or  foreigners,  previous  to 
becoming  residents  or  citizens  of  the  United  States,  shall  forfeit 
and  pay  for  every  such  offense  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars, 
which  may  be  sued  for  and  recovered  by  the  United  States  or  by 
any  person  who  shall  first  bring  his  action  therefor,  including  any 
such  alien  or  foreigner  who  may  be  a  party  to  any  such  contract 
or  agreement,  as  debts  of  like  amount  are  now  recovered  in  the 
circuit  courts  of  the  United  States ;  the  proceeds  to  be  paid  into 
the  Treasury  of  the  United  States;  and  separate  suits  may  be 
brought  for  each  alien  or  foreigner  being  a  party  to  such  contract 
or  agreement  aforesaid.  And  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  district 
attorney  of  the  proper  district  to  prosecute  every  such  suit  at  the 
expense  of  the  United  States. 

SEC.  4.  That  the  master  of  any  vessel  who  shall  knowingly 
bring  within  the  United  States  on  any  such  vessel,  and  land,  or 
permit  to  be  landed,  from  any  foreign  port  or  place,  any  alien 
laborer,  mechanic,  or  artisan  who,  previous  to  embarkation  on 
such  vessel,  had  entered  into  contract  or  agreement,  parol  or 
special,  express  or  implied,  to  perform  labor  or  service  in  the 
United  States,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor  and,  on 
conviction  thereof,  shall  be  punished  by  a  fine  of  not  more  than 
five  hundred  dollars  for  each  and  every  such  alien  laborer, 
mechanic,  or  artisan  so  brought  as  aforesaid,  and  may  also  be 
imprisoned  for  a  term  not  exceeding  six  months. 

SEC.  5.  That  nothing  in  this  act  shall  be  so  construed  as  to 
prevent  any  citizen  or  subject  of  any  foreign  country  temporarily 
residing  in  the  United  States,  either  in  private  or  official  capacity, 
from  engaging,  under  contract  or  otherwise,  persons  not  residents 
or  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  act  as  private  secretaries, 
servants,  or  domestics  for  such  foreigners  temporarily  residing 
in  the  United  States  as  aforesaid;  nor  shall  this  act  be  so  con- 
strued as  to  prevent  any  person,  or  persons,  partnership,  or  cor- 
poration from  engaging,  under  contract  or  agreement,  skilled 
workmen  in  foreign  countries  to  perform  labor  in  the  United 
States  in  or  upon  any  new  industry  not  at  present  established  in 
the  United  States:  Provided,  That  skilled  labor  for  that  purpose 
can  not  be  otherwise  obtained ;  nor  shall  the  provisions  of  this 
act  apply  to  professional  actors,  artists,  lecturers,  or  singers,  nor 
to  persons  employed  strictly  as  personal  or  domestic  servants : 
Provided,  That  nothing  in  this  act  shall  be  construed  as  prohibit- 
ing any  individual  from  assisting  any  member  of  his  family  or  any 
relative  or  personal  friend,  to  migrate  from  any  foreign  country 
to  the  United  States,  for  the  purpose  of  settlement  here. 

SEC.  6.  That  all  laws  or  parts  of  laws  conflicting  herewith  be, 
and  the  same  are  hereby,  repealed. 

Approved  February  26,  1885   (23  Stat.  L.,  332). 


Appendix  353 


AMENDATORY  ACT 

AN  ACT  to  prohibit  the  importation  and  immigration  of  for- 
eigners and  aliens  under  contract  or  agreement  to  perform  labor 
in  the  United  States,  the  Territories,  and  the  District  of 
Columbia. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  an  act  to 
prohibit  the  importation  and  immigration  of  foreigners  and  aliens 
tinder  contract  or  agreement  to  perform  labor  in  the  United 
States,  its  Territories,  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  approved 
February  twenty-sixth,  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-five,  and  to 
provide  for  the  enforcement  thereof,  be  amended  by  adding  the 
following: 

"  SEC.  6.  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of 
Commerce  and  Labor]  is  hereby  charged  with  the  duty  of  execut- 
ing the  provisions  of  this  act,  and  for  that  purpose  he  shall  have 
power  to  enter  into  contracts  with  such  State  commission,  board, 
or  officers  as  may  be  designated  for  that  purpose  by  the  governor 
of  any  State  to  take  charge  of  the  local  affairs  of  immigration  in 
the  ports  within  said  State,  under  the  rules  and  regulations  to 
be  prescribed  by  said  Secretary ;  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  such 
State  commission,  board,  or  officers  so  designated  to  examine  into 
the  condition  of  passengers  arriving  at  the  ports  within  such 
State  in  any  ship  or  vessel,  and  for  that  purpose  all  or  any  of 
such  commissioners  or  officers  or  such  other  person  or  persons  as 
they  shall  appoint,  shall  be  authorized  to  go  on  board  of  and 
through  any  such  ship  or  vessel ;  and  if  in  such  examination  there 
shall  be  found  among  such  passengers  any  person  included  in  the 
prohibition  in  this  act,  they  shall  report  the  same  in  writing  to 
the  collector  of  such  port,  and  such  person  shall  not  be  per- 
mitted to  land. 

''  SEC.  7.  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of 
Commerce  and  Labor]  shall  establish  such  regulations  and  rules, 
and  issue  from  time  to  time  such  instructions  not  inconsistent 
with  law,  as  he  shall  deem  best  calculated  for  carrying  out  the 
provisions  of  this  act;  and  he  shall  prescribe  all  forms  of  bonds, 
entries,  and  other  papers  to  be  used  under  and  in  the  enforcement 
of  the  various  provisions  of  this  act. 

"  SEC  8.  That  all  persons  included  in  the  prohibition  in  this 
act,  upon  arrival,  shall  be  sent  back  to  the  nations  to  which  they 
belong  and  from  whence  they  came.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor]  may  designate  the  State 
board  of  charities  of  any  State  in  which  such  board  shall  exist 
by  law,  or  any  commission  in  any  State,  or  any  person  or  persons 
in  any  State,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  execute  the  provisions  of 
this  section  and  shall  be  entitled  to  reasonable  compensation 
therefor  to  be  fixed  by  regulation  prescribed  by  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor].  The  Secre- 


354  Appendix 

tary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor]  shall 
prescribe  regulations  for  the  return  of  the  aforesaid  persons  to  the 
countries  from  whence  they  came,  and  shall  furnish  instructions 
to  the  board,  commission,  or  persons  charged  with  the  execution 
of  the  provisions  of  this  section  as  to  the  time  of  procedure  in 
respect  thereto,  and  may  change  such  instructions  from  time  to 
time.  The  expense  of  such  return  of  the  aforesaid  persons  not 
permitted  to  land  shall  be  borne  by  the  owners  of  the  vessels  in 
which  they  came.  And  any  vessel  refusing  to  pay  such  expenses 
shall  not  thereafter  be  permitted  to  land  at  or  clear  from  any  port 
of  the  United  States.  And  such  expenses  shall  be  a  lien  on  said 
vessel.  That  the  necessary  expense  in  the  execution  of  this  act 
for  the  present  fiscal  year  shall  be  paid  out  of  any  money  in  the 
Treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated. 

"  SEC.  9.  That  all  acts  and  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with  this 
act  are  hereby  repealed. 

"  SEC.  10.  That  this  act  shall  take  effect  at  the  expiration  of 
thirty  days  after  its  passage." 

Approved,  February  23,  1887  (24  Stat.  L.,  414). 


AMENDMENT  TO  THE  ALIEN  CONTRACT-LABOR  LAW  CONTAINED  IN 
THE  DEFICIENCY  BILL  APPROVED  OCTOBER  19,  1888  (25  STAT. 
L.,  565). 

That  the  act  approved  February  twenty-third,  eighteen  hundred 
and  eighty-seven,  entitled  "  An  act  to  amend  an  act  to  prohibit 
the  importation  and  immigration  of  foreigners  and  aliens  under 
contract  or  agreement  to  perform  labor  in  the  United  States,  its 
Territories,  and  the  District  of  Columbia,"  be,  and  the  same  is 
hereby  so  amended  as  to  authorize  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
[Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor],  in  case  that  he  shall  be 
satisfied  that  an  immigrant  has  been  allowed  to  land  contrary  to 
the  prohibition  of  that  law,  to  cause  such  immigrant,  within  the 
period  of  one  year  after  landing  or  entry,  to  be  taken  into  custody 
and  returned  to  the  country  from  whence  he  came,  at  the  expense 
of  the  owner  of  the  importing  vessel ;  or,  if  he  entered  from  an 
adjoining  country,  at  the  expense  of  the  person  previously  con- 
tracting for  the  services. 


ACT  OF  MARCH  3,  1903. 

AN  ACT  to  regulate  the  immigration  of  aliens  into  the  United 
States. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  there  shall 
be  levied,  collected,  and  paid  a  duty  of  two  dollars  for  each  and 
every  passenger  not  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  or  of  the 
Dominion  of  Canada,  the  Republic  of  Cuba,  or  of  the  Republic 


Appendix  355 

of  Mexico,  who  shall  come  by  steam,  sail,  or  other  vessel  from 
any  foreign  port  to  any  port  within  the  United  States,  or 
by  any  railway  or  any  other  mode  of  transportation,  from 
foreign  contiguous  territory  to  the  United  States.  The  said 
duty  shall  be  paid  to  the  collector  of  customs  of  the  port  or  cus- 
toms district  to  which  said  alien  passenger  shall  come,  or,  if 
there  be  no  collector  at  such  port  or  district,  then  to  the  collector 
nearest  thereto,  by  the  master,  agent,  owner,  or  consignee  of  every 
such  vessel  or  transportation  line.  The  money  thus  collected 
shall  be  paid  into  the  United  States  Treasury  and  shall  constitute 
a  permanent  appropriation  to  be  called  the  "  immigrant  fund,"  to 
be  used  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
[Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor]  to  defray  the  expense  of 
regulating  the  immigration  of  aliens  into  the  United  States  under 
this  Act,  including  the  cost  of  reports  of  decisions  of  the  Federal 
courts,  and  digests  thereof,  for  the  use  of  the  Commissioner- 
General  of  Immigration,  and  the  salaries  and  expenses  of  all 
officers,  clerks,  and  employees  appointed  for  the  purpose  of  en- 
forcing the  provisions  of  this  Act.  The  duty  imposed  by  this 
section  shall  be  a  lien  upon  the  vessel  which  shall  bring  such  aliens 
to  ports  of  the  United  States,  and  shall  be  a  debt  in  favor  of  the 
United  States  against  the  owner  or  owners  of  such  vessels,  and  the 
payment  of  such  duty  may  be  enforced  by  any  legal  or  equitable 
remedy;  the  head  tax  herein  provided  for  shall  not  be  levied 
upon  aliens  in  transit  through  the  United  States  nor  upon  aliens 
who  have  once  been  admitted  into  the  United  States  and  have 
paid  the  head  tax  who  later  shall  go  in  transit  from  one  part  of 
the  United  States  to  another  through  foreign  contiguous  territory: 
Provided,  That  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  under 
the  direction  or  with  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor],  by  agreement  with 
transportation  lines,  as  provided  in  section  thirty-two  of  this  Act, 
may  arrange  in  some  other  manner  for  the  payment  of  the  duty 
imposed  by  this  section  upon  aliens  seeking  admission  overland, 
either  as  to  all  or  as  to  any  such  aliens. 

SEC.  2.  That  the  following  classes  of  aliens  shall  be  excluded 
from  admission  into  the  United  States :  All  idiots,  insane  persons, 
epileptics,  and  persons  who  have  been  insane  within  five  years 
previous;  persons  who  have  had  two  or  more  attacks  of  insanity 
at  any  time  previously ;  paupers ;  persons  likely  to  become  a 
public  charge ;  professional  beggars ;  persons  afflicted  with  a  loath- 
some or  with  a  dangerous  contagious  disease ;  persons  who  have 
been  convicted  of  a  felony  or  other  crime  or  misdemeanor  involv- 
ing moral  turpitude ;  polygamists,  anarchists,  or  persons  who  be- 
lieve in  or  advocate  the  overthrow  by  force  or  violence  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  or  of  all  government  or  of  all 
forms  of  law,  or  the  assassination  of  public  officials;  prostitutes, 
and  persons  who  procure  or  attempt  to  bring  in  prostitutes 
or  women  for  the  purpose  of  prostitution ;  those  who  have  been, 
within  one  year  from  the  date  of  the  application  for  admission  to 
the  United  States,  deported  as  being  under  offers,  solicitations, 


356  Appendix 

promises  or  agreements  to  perform  labor  or  service  of  some  kind 
therein ;  and  also  any  person  whose  ticket  or  passage  is  paid  for 
with  the  money  of  another,  or  who  is  assisted  by  others  to  come, 
unless  it  is  affirmatively  and  satisfactorily  shown  that  such  person 
does  not  belong  to  one  of  the  foregoing  excluded  classes ;  but  this 
section  shall  not  be  held  to  prevent  persons  living  in  the  United 
States  from  sending  for  a  relative  or  friend  who  is  not  of  the 
foregoing  excluded  classes :  Provided,  That  nothing  in  this  Act 
shall  exclude  persons  convicted  of  an  offense  purely  political,  not 
involving  moral  turpitude :  And  provided  further,  That  skilled 
labor  may  be  imported,  if  labor  of  like  kind  unemployed  can  not 
be  found  in  this  country:  And  provided  further,  That  the  provi- 
sions of  this  law  applicable  to  contract  labor  shall  not  be  held  to 
exclude  professional  actors,  artists,  lecturers,  singers,  ministers 
of  any  religious  denomination,  professors  for  colleges  or  semi- 
naries, persons  belonging  to  any  recognized  learned  profession,  or 
persons  employed  strictly  as  personal  or  domestic  servants. 

SEC.  3.  That  the  importation  into  the  United  States  of  any 
woman  or  girl  for  the  purposes  of  prostitution  is  hereby  forbidden ; 
and  whoever  shall  import  or  attempt  to  import  any  woman  or 
girl  into  the  United  States  for  the  purposes  of  prostitution,  or 
shall  hold  or  attempt  to  hold,  any  woman  or  girl  for  such  pur- 
poses in  pursuance  of  such  illegal  importation  shall  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  felony,  and,  on  conviction  therof,  shall  be  imprisoned 
not  less  than  one  nor  more  than  five  years  and  pay  a  fine  not  ex- 
ceeding five  thousand  dollars. 

SEC.  4.  That  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  any  person,  company, 
partnership,  or  corporation,  in  any  manner  whatsoever,  to  prepay 
the  transportation  or  in  any  way  to  assist  or  encourage  the  im- 
portation or  migration  of  any  alien  into  the  United  States,  in 
pursuance  of  any  offer,  solicitation,  promise,  or  agreement,  parole 
or  special,  expressed  or  implied,  made  previous  to  the  importation 
of  such  alien  to  perform  labor  or  service  of  any  kind,  skilled  or 
unskilled,  in  the  United  States. 

SEC.  5.  That  for  every  violation  of  any  of  the  provisions  of 
section  four  of  this  Act  the  person,  partnership,  company,  or 
corporation  violating  the  same,  by  knowingly  assisting,  encour- 
aging, or  soliciting  the  migration  or  importation  of  any  alien  to 
the  United  States  to  perform  labor  or  service  of  any  kind  by 
reason  of  any  offer,  solicitation,  promise,  or  agreement,  express 
or  implied,  parole  or  special,  to  or  with  such  alien  shall  forfeit 
and  pay  for  every  such  offense  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars, 
which  may  be  sued  for  and  recovered  by  the  United  States,  or  by 
any  person  who  shall  first  bring  his  action  therefor  in  his  own 
name  and  for  his  own  benefit,  including  any  such  alien  thus 
promised  labor  or  service  of  any  kind  as  aforesaid,  as  debts  of 
like  amount  are  now  recovered  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States ; 
and  separate  suits  may  be  brought  for  each  alien  thus  promised 
labor  or  service  of  any  kind  as  aforesaid.  And  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  district  attorney  of  the  proper  district  to  prosecute 
every  such  suit  when  brought  by  the  United  States. 


Appendix  357 

SEC.  6.  That  it  shall  be  unlawful  and  be  deemed  a  violation  of 
section  four  of  this  Act  to  assist  or  encourage  the  importation 
or  migration  of  any  alien  by  a  promise  of  employment  through 
advertisements  printed  and  published  in  any  foreign  country ;  and 
any  alien  coming  to  this  country  in  consequence  of  such  an  adver- 
tisement shall  be  treated  as  coming  under  a  promise  or  agree- 
ment as  contemplated  in  section  two  of  this  Act,  and  the  penalties 
imposed  by  section  five  of  this  Act  shall  be  applicable  to  such  a 
case :  Provided,  That  this  section  shall  not  apply  to  States  or 
Territories,  the  District  of  Columbia,  or  places  subject  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  advertising  the  inducements  they 
offer  for  immigration  thereto,  respectively. 

SEC.  7.  That  no  transportation  company  or  owner  or  owners 
of  vessels  or  others  engaged  in  transporting  aliens  into  the  United 
States,  shall,  directly  or  through  agents,  either  by  writing,  print- 
ing, or  oral  representations,  solicit,  invite,  or  encourage  the  immi- 
gration of  any  aliens  into  the  United  States  except  by  ordinary 
commercial  letters,  circulars,  advertisements,  or  oral  representa- 
tions, stating  the  sailings  of  their  vessels  and  terms  and  facilities 
of  transportation  therein ;  and  for  a  violation  of  this  provision 
any  such  transportation  company  and  any  such  owner  or  owners 
of  vessels,  and  all  others  engaged  in  transporting  aliens  to  the 
United  States,  and  the  agents  by  them  employed,  shall  be  sub- 
jected to  the  penalties  imposed  by  section  five  of  this  Act. 

SEC.  8.  That  any  person,  including  the  master,  agent,  owner, 
or  consignee  of  any  vessel,  who  shaTl  bring  into  or  land  in  the 
United  States  by  vessel  or  otherwise,  or  who  shall  attempt, 
by  himself,  or  through  another,  to  bring  into  or  land  in  the  United 
States,  by  vessel  or  otherwise,  any  alien  not  duly  admitted  by  an 
immigrant  inspector,  or  not  lawfully  entitled  to  enter  the  United 
States,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  shall,  on 
conviction,  be  punished  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  one  thousand 
dollars  for  each  and  every  alien  so  landed  or  attempted  to  be 
landed,  or  by  imprisonment  for  a  term  not  less  than  three  months 
nor  more  than  two  years,  or  by  both  such  fine  and  imprisonment. 

SEC.  9.  That  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  any  person,  including  any 
transportation  company  other  than  railway  lines  entering  the 
United  States  from  foreign  contiguous  territory,  or  the  owner, 
master,  agent,  or  consignee  of  any  vessel  to  bring  to  the  United 
States  any  alien  afflicted  with  a  loathsome  or  with  a  dangerous 
contagious  disease;  and  if  it  shall  appear  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of  Commerce  and 
Labor]  that  any  alien  so  brought  to  the  United  States  was 
afflicted  with  such  a  disease  at  the  time  of  foreign  embarkation, 
and  that  the  existence  of  such  disease  might  have  been  detected 
by  means  of  a  competent  medical  examination  at  such  time,  such 
person  or  transportation  company  or  the  master,  agent,  owner, 
or  consignee  of  any  such  vessel  shall  pay  to  the  collector  of 
customs  of  the  customs  district  in  which  the  port  of  arrival  is 
located  the  sum  of  one  hundred  dollars  for  each  and  every  viola- 
tion of  the  provisions  of  this  section ;  and  no  vessel  shall  be  granted 


358  Appendix 

clearance  papers  while  any  such  fine  imposed  upon  it  remains  un- 
paid, nor  shall  such  fine  be  remitted. 

SEC.  10.  That  the  decision  of  the  board  of  special  inquiry, 
hereinafter  provided  for,  based  upon  the  certificate  of  the  ex- 
amining medical  officer,  shall  be  final  as  to  the  rejection  of  aliens 
afflicted  with  a  loathsome  or  with  a  dangerous  contagious  disease, 
or  with  any  mental  or  physical  disability  which  would  bring  such 
aliens  within  any  of  the  classes  excluded  from  admission  to  the 
United  States  under  section  two  of  this  Act. 

SEC.  II.  That  upon  the  certificate  of  a  medical  officer  of  the 
United  States  Marine-Hospital  Service  to  the  effect  that  a  rejected 
alien  is  helpless  from  sickness,  physical  disability,  or  infancy,  if 
such  alien  is  accompanied  by  another  alien  whose  protection  or 
guardianship  is  required  by  such  rejected  alien,  the  master,  agent, 
owner,  or  consignee  of  the  vessel  in  which  such  alien  and  accom- 
panying alien  are  brought  shall  be  required  to  return  said  alien 
and  accompanying  alien  in  the  same  manner  as  vessels  are  re- 
quired to  return  other  rejected  aliens. 

SEC.  12.  That  upon  the  arrival  of  any  alien  by  water  at  any 
port  within  the  United  States  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  master 
or  commanding  officer  of  the  steamer,  sailing  or  other  vessel, 
having  said  alien  on  board  to  deliver  to  the  immigration  officers 
at  the  port  of  arrival  lists  or  manifests  made  at  the  time  and  place 
of  embarkation  of  such  alien  on  board  such  steamer  or  vessel, 
which  shall,  in  answer  to  questions  at  the  top  of  said  lists,  state 
as  to  each  alien  the  full  name,  age,  and  sex ;  whether  married 
or  single ;  the  calling  or  occupation ;  whether  able  to  read  or  write ; 
the  nationality;  the  race;  the  last  residence;  the  seaport  for  land- 
ing in  the  United  States ;  the  final  destination,  if  any,  beyond  the 
port  of  landing;  whether  having  a  ticket  through  to  such  final 
destination;  whether  the  alien  has  paid  his  own  passage,  or 
whether  it  has  been  paid  by  any  other  person  or  by  any  cor- 
poration, society,  municipality,  or  government,  and  if  so,  by 
whom ;  whether  in  possession  of  fifty  dollars,  and  if  less,  how 
much;  whether  going  to  join  a  relative  or  friend,  and  if  so,  what 
relative  or  friend  and  his  name  and  complete  address ;  whether 
ever  before  in  the  United  States,  and  if  so,  when  and  where ; 
whether  ever  in  prison  or  almshouse  or  an  institution  or  hospital 
for  the  care  and  treatment  of  the  insane  or  supported  by  charity ; 
whether  a  polygamist ;  whether  an  anarchist ;  whether  coming  by 
reason  of  any  offer,  solicitation,  promise  or  agreement,  expressed 
or  implied,  to  perform  labor  in  the  United  States,  and  what  is 
the  alien's  condition  of  health  mental  and  physical,  and  whether 
deformed  or  crippled,  and  if  so,  for  how  long  and  from  what 
cause. 

SEC.  13.  That  all  aliens  arriving  by  water  at  the  ports  of  the 
United  States  shall  be  listed  in  convenient  groups,  and  no  one 
list  or  manifest  shall  contain  more  than  thirty  names.  To  each 
alien  or  head  of  a  family  shall  be  given  a  ticket  on  which  shall 
be  written  his  name,  a  number  or  letter  designating  the  list  in 
which  his  name,  and  so  forth,  is  contained,  and  his  number  on 


Appendix  359 

said  list,  for  convenience  of  identification  on  arrival.  Each  list 
or  manifest  shall  be  verified  by  the  signature  and  the  oath  or 
affirmation  of  the  master  or  commanding  officer  or  the  first  or 
second  below  him  in  command,  taken  before  an  immigration 
officer  at  the  port  of  arrival,  to  the  effect  that  he  has  caused  the 
surgeon  of  said  vessel  sailing  therewith  to  make  a  physical  and 
oral  examination  of  each  of  said  aliens,  and  that  from  the  report 
of  said  surgeon  and  from  his  own  investigation  he  believes  that 
no  one  of  said  aliens  is  an  idiot,  or  insane  person,  or  a  pauper, 
or  is  likely  to  become  a  public  charge,  or  is  suffering  from  a  loath- 
some or  a  dangerous  contagious  disease,  or  is  a  person  who  has 
been  convicted  of  a  felony  or  other  crime  or  misdemeanor  in- 
volving moral  turpitude,  or  a  polygamist,  or  an  anarchist,  or 
under  promise  or  agreement,  express  or  implied,  to  perform  labor 
in  the  United  States,  or  a  prostitute,  and  that  also,  according  to 
the  best  of  his  knowledge  and  belief,  the  information  in  said  lists 
or  manifests  concerning  each  of  said  aliens  named  therein  is 
correct  and  true  in  every  respect. 

SEC.  14.  That  the  surgeon  of  said  vessel  sailing  therewith  shall 
also  sign  each  of  said  lists  or  manifests  and  make  oath  or  affirm- 
ation in  like  manner  before  an  immigration  officer  at  the  port  of 
arrival,  stating  his  professional  experience  and  qualifications  as 
a  physician  and  surgeon,  and  that  he  has  made  a  personal  ex- 
amination of  each  of  the  said  aliens  named  therein,  and  that  the 
said  list  or  manifest,  according  to  the  best  of  his  knowledge  and 
belief,  is  full,  correct,  and  true  in  all  particulars  relative  to  the 
mental  and  physical  condition  of  said  aliens.  If  no  surgeon 
sails  with  any  vessel  bringing  aliens  the  mental  and  physical 
examinations  and  the  verifications  of  the  lists  or  manifests  shall 
be  made  by  some  competent  surgeon  employed  by  the  owners  of 
the  said  vessel. 

SEC.  15.  That  in  the  case  of  the  failure  of  the  master  or  com- 
manding officer  of  any  vessel  to  deliver  to  the  said  immigration 
officers  lists  or  manifests  of  all  aliens  on  board  thereof  as  re- 
quired in  sections  twelve,  thirteen,  and  fourteen  of  this  Act,  he 
shall  pay  to  the  collector  of  customs  at  the  port  of  arrival  the 
sum  of  ten  dollars  for  each  alien  concerning  whom  the  above 
information  is  not  contained  in  any  list  as  aforesaid. 

SEC.  16.  That  upon  the  receipt  by  the  immigration  officers  at 
any  port  of  arrival  of  the  lists  or  manifests  of  aliens  provided  for 
in  sections  twelve,  thirteen,  and  fourteen  of  this  Act  it  shall  be 
the  duty  of  said  officers  to  go  or  send  competent  assistants  to 
the  vessels  to  which  said  lists  or  manifests  refer  and  there  inspect 
all  such  aliens,  or  said  immigration  officers  may  order  a  temporary 
removal  of  such  aliens  for  examination  at  a  designated  time  and 
place,  but  such  temporary  removal  shall  not  be  considered  a 
landing,  nor  shall  it  relieve  the  transportation  lines,  masters, 
agents,  owners,  or  consignees  of  the  vessel  upon  which  such 
aliens  are  brought  to  any  port  of  the  United  States  from  any  of 
the  obligations  which,  in  case  such  aliens  remain  on  board,  would, 
under  the  provisions  of  this  Act,  bind  the  said  transportation 


360  Appendix 

lines,  masters,  agents,  owners,  or  consignees :  Provided,  That 
where  a  suitable  building  is  used  for  the  detention  and  examina- 
tion of  aliens  the  immigration  officials  shall  there  take  charge  of 
such  aliens,  and  the  transportation  companies,  masters,  agents, 
owners,  and  consignees  of  the  vessels  bringing  such  aliens  shall 
be  relieved  of  the  responsibility  for  their  detention  thereafter 
until  the  return  of  such  aliens  to  their  care. 

SEC.  17.  That  the  physical  and  mental  examination  of  all 
arriving  aliens  shall  be  made  by  medical  officers  of  the  United 
States  Marine-Hospital  Service,  who  shall  have  had  at  least  two 
years'  experience  in  the  practice  of  their  profession  since  receiving 
the  degree  of  doctor  of  medicine  and  who  shall  certify  for  the 
information  of  the  immigration  officers  and  the  boards  of  special 
inquiry  hereinafter  provided  for,  any  and  all  physical  and  mental 
defects  or  diseases  observed  by  said  medical  officers  in  any  such 
alien,  or,  should  medical  officers  of  the  United  States  Marine- 
Hospital  Service  be  not  available,  civil  surgeons  of  not  less  than 
four  years'  professional  experience  may  be  employed  in  such 
emergencies  for  the  said  service,  upon  such  terms  as  may  be 
prescribed  by  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  under 
the  direction  or  with  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor].  The  United  States 
Public  Health  and  Marine-Hospital  Service  shall  be  reimbursed 
by  the  Immigration  Service  for  all  expenditures  incurred  in  carry- 
ing out  the  medical  inspection  of  aliens  under  regulations  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor]. 

SEC.  18.  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  owners,  officers  and 
agents  of  any  vessel  bringing  an  alien  to  the  United  States  to 
adopt  due  precautions  to  prevent  the  landing  of  any  such  alien 
from  such  vessel  at  any  time  or  place  other  than  that  designated 
by  the  immigration  officers,  and  any  such  owner,  officer,  agent,  or 
person  in  charge  of  such  vessel  who  shall  land  or  permit  to  land 
any  alien  at  any  time  or  place  other  than  that  designated  by  the 
immigration  officers,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor, 
and  shall  on  conviction  be  punished  by  a  fine  for  each  alien  so 
permitted  to  land  of  not  less  than  one  hundred  or  more  than  one 
thousand  dollars,  or  by  imprisonment  for  a  term  not  exceeding 
one  year,  or  by  both  such  fine  and  imprisonment,  and  every  such 
alien  so  landed  shall  be  deemed  to  be  unlawfully  in  the  United 
States  and  shall  be  deported,  as  provided  by  law. 

SEC.  19.  That  all  aliens  brought  into  this  country  in  violation 
of  law  shall,  if  practicable,  be  immediately  sent  back  to  the  coun- 
tries whence  they  respectively  came  on  the  vessels  bringing  them. 
The  cost  of  their  maintenance  while  on  land,  as  well  as  the  ex- 
pense of  the  return  of  such  aliens,  shall  be  borne  by  the  owner 
or  owners  of  the  vessels  on  which  they  respectively  came ;  and  if 
any  master,  person  in  charge,  agent,  owner,  or  consignee  of  any 
such  vessel  shall  refuse  to  receive  back  on  board  thereof,  or  of 
any  other  vessel  owned  by  the  same  interest,  such  aliens,  or  shall 
neglect  to  detain  them  thereon,  or  shall  refuse  or  neglect  to 
return  them  to  the  foreign  port  from  which  they  came,  or  to 


Appendix  361 

pay  the  cost  of  their  maintenance  while  on  land,  such  master, 
person  in  charge,  agent,  owner,  or  consignee  shall  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanor  and  shall,  on  conviction,  be  punished 
by  a  fine  not  less  than  three  hundred  dollars  for  each  and  every 
such  offense ;  and  no  vessel  shall  have  clearance  from  any 
port  of  the  United  States  while  any  such  fine  is  unpaid :  Provided, 
That  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  under  the  direc- 
tion or  with  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
[Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor],  may  suspend,  upon  condi- 
tions to  be  prescribed  by  the  Commissioner-General,  the  deporta- 
tion of  any  alien  found  to  have  come  under  promise  or  agree- 
ment of  labor  or  service  of  any  kind  if,  in  his  judgment,  the  testi- 
mony of  such  alien  is  necessary  on  behalf  of  the  United  States 
Government  in  the  prosecution  of  offenders  against  the  provi- 
sions of  sections  four  and  five  of  this  Act :  Provided,  That  the 
cost  of  maintenance  of  any  person  so  detained  resulting  from  such 
suspension  of  deportation  shall  be  paid  from  the  "  immigrant 
fund,"  but  no  alien  certified,  as  provided  in  section  seventeen  of 
this  Act,  to  be  suffering  with  a  loathsome  or  with  a  dangerous 
contagious  disease  other  than  one  of  a  quarantinable  nature,  shall 
be  permitted  to  land  for  medical  treatment  thereof  in  the  hospitals 
of  the  United  States. 

SEC.  20.  That  any  alien  who  shall  come  into  the  United  States 
in  violation  of  law,  or  who  shall  be  found  a  public  charge 
therein,  from  causes  existing  prior  to  landing,  shall  be  deported 
as  hereinafter  provided  to  the  country  whence  he  came  at  any 
time  within  two  years  after  arrival  at  the  expense,  including  one- 
half  of  the  cost  of  inland  transportation  to  the  port  of  deportation, 
of  the  person  bringing  such  alien  into  the  United  States,  or,  if 
that  can  not  be  done,  then  at  the  expense  of  the  immigrant  fund 
referred  to  in  section  one  of  this  Act 

SEC.  21  That  in  case  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary 
of  Commerce  and  Labor]  shall  be  satisfied  that  an  alien  has 
been  found  in  the  United  States  in  violation  of  this  Act  he  shall 
cause  such  alien,  within  the  period  of  three  years  after  landing 
or  entry  therein,  to  be  taken  into  custody  and  returned  to  the 
country  whence  he  came,  as  provided  in  section  twenty  of  this 
Act,  or,  if  that  can  not  be  so  done,  at  the  expense  of  the  immi- 
grant fund  provided  for  in  section  one  of  this  Act;  and  neglect 
or  refusal  on  the  part  of  the  masters,  agents,  owners,  or  consignees 
of  vessels  to  comply  with  the  order  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor]  to  take  on  board,  guard 
safely,  and  return  to  the  country  whence  he  came  any  alien 
ordered  to  be  deported  under  the  provisions  of  this  section  shall 
be  punished  by  the  imposition  of  the  penalties  prescribed  in  sec- 
tion nineteen  of  this  Act. 

SEC.  22.  That  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  in 
addition  to  such  other  duties  as  may  by  law  be  assigned  to  him, 
shall,  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
[Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor]  have  charge  of  the  admin- 
istration of  all  laws  relating  to  the  immigration  of  aliens  into 


362  Appendix 

the  United  States,  and  shall  have  the  control,  direction,  and  super- 
vision of  all  officers,  clerks,  and  employees  appointed  thereunder. 
He  shall  establish  such  rules  and  regulations,  prescribe  such 
forms  of  bonds,  reports,  entries,  and  other  papers,  and  shall  issue 
from  time  to  time  such  instructions,  not  inconsistent  with  law, 
as  he  shall  deem  best  calculated  for  carrying  out  the  provisions 
of  this  Act  and  for  protecting  the  United  States  and  aliens 
migrating  thereto  from  fraud  and  loss,  and  shall  have  authority 
to  enter  into  contracts  for  the  support  and  relief  of  such  aliens 
as  may  fall  into  distress  or  need  public  aid ;  all  under  the  direc- 
tion or  with  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
[Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor].  And  it  shall  be  the  duty 
of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration  to  detail  officers 
of  the  immigration  service  from  time  to  time  as  may  be  necessary, 
in  his  judgment,  to  secure  information  as  to  the  number  of  aliens 
detained  in  the  penal,  reformatory,  and  charitable  institutions 
(public  and  private)  of  the  several  States  and  Territories,  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  other  territory  of  the  United  States, 
and  to  inform  the  officers  of  such  institutions  of  the  provisions 
of  law  in  relation  to  the  deportation  of  aliens  who  have  become 
public  charges :  Provided,  That  the  Commissioner-General  of 
Immigration  may,  with  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor],  whenever  in  his 
judgment  such  action  may  be  necessary  to  accomplish  the  pur- 
poses of  this  Act,  detail  immigration  officers  for  temporary  serv- 
ice in  foreign  countries. 

SEC.  23.  That  the  duties  of  the  commissioners  of  immigration 
shall  be  of  an  administrative  character,  to  be  prescribed  in  detail 
by  regulations  prepared,  under  the  direction  or  with  the  approval 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of  Commerce  and 
Labor]. 

SEC.  24.  That  immigrant  inspectors  and  other  immigration 
officers,  clerks,  and  employees  shall  hereafter  be  appointed,  and 
their  compensation  fixed  and  raised  or  decreased  from  time  to 
time,  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of  Commerce 
and  Labor],  upon  the  recommendation  of  the  Commissioner- 
General  of  Immigration  and  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of 
the  civil-service  Act  of  January  sixteenth,  eighteen  hundred  and 
eighty-three :  Provided,  That  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be 
construed  to  alter  the  mode  of  appointing  commissioners  of  immi- 
gration at  the  several  ports  of  the  United  States  as  provided  by 
the  sundry  civil  appropriation  Act  approved  August  eighteenth, 
eighteen  hundred  and  ninety-four,  or  the  official  status  of  such 
commissioners  heretofore  appointed.  Immigration  officers  shall 
have  power  to  administer  oaths  and  to  take  and  consider  testi- 
mony touching  the  right  of  any  alien  to  enter  the  United  States, 
and,  where  such  action  may  be  necessary,  to  make  a  written 
record  of  such  testimony,  and  any  person  to  whom  such  an  oath 
has  been  administered  under  the  provisions  of  this  Act  who  shall 
knowingly  or  willfully  give  false  testimony  or  swear  to  any  false 
statement  in  any  way  affecting  or  in  relation  to  the  right  of  an 


Appendix  363 

alien  to  admission  to  the  United  States  shall  be  deemed  guilty 
of  perjury  and  be  punished  as  provided  by  section  fifty-three 
hundred  and  ninety-two,  United  States  Revised  Statutes.  The 
decision  of  any  such  officer,  if  favorable  to  the  admission  of  any 
alien,  shall  be  subject  to  challenge  by  any  other  immigration 
officer,  and  such  challenge  shall  operate  to  take  the  alien  whose 
right  to  land  is  so  challenged  before  a  board  of  special  inquiry 
for  its  investigation.  Every  alien  who  may  not  appear  to  the 
examining  immigrant  inspector  at  the  port  of  arrival  to  be  clearly 
and  beyond  a  doubt  entitled  to  land  shall  be  detained  for  examin- 
ation in  relation  thereto  by  a  board  of  special  inquiry. 

SEC.  25.  That  such  boards  of  special  inquiry  shall  be  appointed 
by  the  commissioners  of  immigration  at  the  various  ports  of 
arrival  as  may  be  necessary  for  the  prompt  determination  of  all 
cases  of  aliens  detained  at  such  ports  under  the  provisions  of 
law.  Such  boards  shall  consist  of  three  members,  who  shall  be 
selected  from  such  of  the  immigrant  officials  in  the  service  as  the 
Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  with  the  approval  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor], 
shall  from  time  to  time  designate  as  qualified  to  serve  on  such 
boards :  Provided,  That  at  ports  where  there  are  fewer  than  three 
immigrant  inspectors,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary 
of  Commerce  and  Labor],  upon  recommendation  of  the  Commis- 
sioner-General of  Immigration,  may  designate  other  United  States 
officials  for  service  on  such  boards  of  special  inquiry.  Such 
boards  shall  have  authority  to  determine  whether  an  alien  who 
has  been  duly  held  shall  be  allowed  to  land  or  be  deported.  All 
hearings  before  boards  shall  be  separate  and  apart  from  the 
public,  but  the  said  boards  shall  keep  complete  permanent  records 
of  their  proceedings  and  of  all  such  testimony  as  may  be  produced 
before  them ;  and  the  decision  of  any  two  members  of  a  board 
shall  prevail  and  be  final,  but  either  the  alien  or  any  dissenting 
member  of  said  board  may  appeal,  through  the  commissioner  of 
immigration  at  the  port  of  arrival  and  the  Commissioner-General 
of  Immigration,  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of 
Commerce  and  Labor],  whose  decision  shall  then  be  final;  and 
the  taking  of  such  appeal  shall  operate  to  stay  any  action  in  regard 
to  the  final  disposal  of  the  alien  whose  case  is  so  appealed  until 
the  receipt  by  the  commissioner  of  immigration  at  the  port  of 
arrival  of  such  decision. 

SEC.  26.  That  no  bond  or  guaranty,  written  or  oral,  that  an 
alien  shall  not  become  a  public  charge  shall  be  received  from  any 
person,  company,  corporation,  charitable  or  benevolent  society  or 
association  unless  authority  to  receive  the  same  shall  in  each 
special  case  be  given  by  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigra- 
tion, with  the  written  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
[Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor]. 

SEC.  27.  That  no  suit  or  proceeding  for  a  violation  of  the  pro- 
visions of  this  Act  shall  be  settled,  compromised,  or  discontinued 
without  the  consent  of  the  court  in  which  it  is  pending,  entered 
of  record,  with  the  reasons  therefor. 


364  Appendix 


SEC.  28.  That  nothing  contained  in  this  Act  shall  be  construed 
to  affect  any  prosecution  or  other  proceeding,  criminal  or  civil, 
begun  under  any  existing  Act  or  any  Acts  hereby  amended,  but 
such  prosecutions  or  other  proceedings,  criminal  or  civil,  shall 
proceed  as  if  this  Act  had  not  been  passed. 

SEC.  29.  That  the  circuit  and  district  courts  of  the  United 
States  are  hereby  invested  with  full  and  concurrent  jurisdiction  of 
all  causes,  civil  and  criminal,  arising  under  any  of  the  provisions 
of  this  Act. 

SEC.  30.  That  after  the  first  day  of  January,  nineteen  hundred 
and  three,  all  exclusive  privileges  of  exchanging  money,  transport- 
ing passengers  or  baggage,  or  keeping  eating  houses,  and  all  other 
like  privileges  in  connection  with  any  United  States  immigration 
station,  shall  be  disposed  of  after  public  competition,  subject  to 
such  conditions  and  limitations  as  the  Commissioner-General  of 
Immigration,  under  the  direction  or  with  the  approval  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor], 
may  prescribe :  Provided,  That  no  intoxicating  liquors  shall  be 
sold  in  any  such  immigrant  station ;  that  all  receipts  accruing 
from  the  disposal  of  such  exclusive  privileges  as  herein  provided 
shall  be  paid  into  the  United  States  Treasury  to  the  credit  of  the 
immigrant  fund  provided  for  in  section  one  of  this  Act. 

SEC.  31.  That  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace,  and  in  order 
that  arrests  may  be  made  for  crimes  under  the  laws  of  the  States 
and  Territories  of  the  United  States  where  the  various  immi- 
grant stations  are  located,  the  officers  in  charge  of  such  stations, 
as  occasion  may  require,  shall  admit  therein  the  proper  State  and 
municipal  officers  charged  with  the  enforcement  of  such  laws, 
and  for  the  purposes  of  this  section  the  jurisdiction  of  such 
officers  and  of  the  local  courts  shall  extend  over  such  stations. 

SEC.  32.  That  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  under 
the  direction  or  with  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor],  shall  prescribe  rules  for 
the  entry  and  inspection  of  aliens  along  the  borders  of  Canada 
and  Mexico,  so  as  not  to  unnecessarily  delay,  impede,  or  annoy 
passengers  in  ordinary  travel  between  the  United  States  and  said 
countries,  and  shall  have  power  to  enter  into  contracts  with 
foreign  transportation  lines  for  the  same  purpose. 

SEC.  33.  That  for  the  purposes  of  this  Act  the  words  "United 
States  "  as  used  in  the  title  as  well  as  in  the  various  sections  of 
this  Act  shall  be  construed  to  mean  the  United  States  and  any 
waters,  territory  or  other  place  now  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 
thereof. 

SEC.  34.  That  no  intoxicating  liquors  of  any  character  shall  be 
sold  within  the  limits  of  the  Capitol  building  of  the  United 
States. 

SEC.  35.  That  the  deportation  of  aliens  arrested  within  the 
United  States  after  entry  and  found  to  be  illegally  therein,  pro- 
vided for  in  this  Act,  shall  be  to  the  trans-Atlantic  or  trans- 
Pacific  ports  from  which  said  aliens  embarked  for  the  United 
States;  or,  if  such  embarkation  was  for  foreign  contiguous  terri- 


Appendix  365 

tory,  to  the  foreign  port  at  which  said  aliens  embarked  for  such 
territory. 

SEC.  36.  That  all  Acts  and  parts  of  Acts  inconsistent  with  this 
Act  are  hereby  repealed :  Provided,  That  this  Act  shall  not  be 
construed  to  repeal,  alter,  or  amend  existing  laws  relating  to  the 
immigration,  or  exclusion  of  Chinese  persons  or  persons  of 
Chinese  descent. 

SEC.  37.  That  whenever  an  alien  shall  have  taken  up  his  per- 
manent residence  in  this  country,  and  shall  have  filed  his  pre- 
liminary declaration  to  become  a  citizen,  and  thereafter  shall 
send  for  his  wife  or  minor  children  to  join  him,  if  said  wife,  or 
either  of  said  children,  shall  be  found  to  be  affected  with  any 
contagious  disorder,  and  if  it  is  proved  that  said  disorder  was 
contracted  on  board  the  ship  in  which  they  came,  and  is  so 
certified  by  the  examining  surgeon  at  the  port  of  arrival,  such 
wife  or  children  shall  be  held,  under  such  regulations  as  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor] 
shall  prescribe,  until  it  shall  be  determined  whether  the  disorder 
will  be  easily  curable,  or  whether  they  can  be  permitted  to  land 
without  danger  to  other  persons;  and  they  shall  not  be  deported 
until  such  facts  have  been  ascertained. 

SEC.  38.  That  no  person  who  disbelieves  in  or  who  is  opposed 
to  all  organized  government,  or  who  is  a  member  of  or  affiliated 
with  any  organization  entertaining  and  teaching  such  disbelief  in 
or  opposition  to  all  organized  government,  or  who  advocates  or 
teaches  the  duty,  necessity,  or  propriety  of  the  unlawful  assaulting 
or  killing  of  any  officer  or  officers,  either  of  specific  individuals 
or  of  officers  generally,  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
or  of  any  other  organized  government,  because  of  his  or  their 
official  character,  shall  be  permitted  to  enter  the  United  States 
or  any  Territory  or  place  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof. 
This  section  shall  be  enforced  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
[Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor]  under  such  rules  and  regu- 
lations as  he  shall  prescribe. 

That  any  person  who  knowingly  aids  or  assists  any  such  person 
to  enter  the  United  States  or  any  Territory  or  place  subject  to 
the  jurisdiction  thereof,  or  who  connives,  or  conspires  with  any 
person  or  persons  to  allow,  procure,  or  permit  any  such  person 
to  enter  therein,  except  pursuant  to  such  rules  and  regulations 
made  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  [Secretary  of  Commerce 
and  Labor]  shall  be  fined  not  more  than  five  thousand  dollars,  or 
imprisoned  for  not  less  than  one  nor  more  than  five  years,  or 
both. 

SEC.  39.  That  no  person  who  disbelieves  in  or  who  is  opposed 
to  all  organized  government,  or  who  is  a  member  of  or  affiliated 
with  any  organization  entertaining  and  teaching  such  disbelief 
in  or  opposition  to  all  organized  government,  or  who  advocates 
or  teaches  the  duty,  necessity,  or  propriety  of  the  unlawful  as- 
saulting or  killing  of  any  officer  or  officers,  either  of  specific 
individuals  or  of  officers  generally,  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  or  of  any  other  organized  government,  because  of 


366  Appendix 

his  or  their  official  character,  or  who  has  violated  any  of  the 
provisions  of  this  Act,  shall  be  naturalized  or  be  made  a  citizen 
of  the  United  States.  All  courts  and  tribunals  and  all  judges  and 
officers  thereof  having  jurisdiction  of  naturalization  proceedings 
or  duties  to  perform  in  regard  thereto  shall,  on  the  final  applica- 
tion for  naturalization,  make  careful  inquiry  into  such  matters, 
and  before  issuing  the  final  order  or  certificate  of  naturalization 
cause  to  be  entered  of  record  the  affidavit  of  the  applicant  and  of 
his  witnesses  so  far  as  applicable,  reciting  and  affirming  the  truth 
of  every  material  fact  requisite  for  naturalization.  All  final 
orders  and  certificates  of  naturalization  hereafter  made  shall  show 
on  their  face  specifically  that  said  affidavits  were  duly  made  and 
recorded,  and  all  orders  and  certificates  that  fail  to  show  such  facts 
shall  be  null  and  void. 

That  any  person  who  purposely  procures  naturalization  in  viola- 
tion of  the  provisions  of  this  section  shall  be  fined  not  more  than 
five  thousand  dollars,  or  shall  be  imprisoned  not  less  than  one 
nor  more  than  ten  years,  or  both,  and  the  court  in  which  such 
conviction  is  had  shall  thereupon  adjudge  and  declare  the  order 
or  decree  and  all  certificates  admitting  such  person  to  citizenship 
null  and  void.  Jurisdiction  is  hereby  conferred  on  the  courts 
haying  jurisdiction  of  the  trial  of  such  offense  to  make  such 
adjudication. 

That  any  person  who  knowingly  aids,  advises,  or  encourages 
any  such  person  to  apply  for  or  to  secure  naturalization  or  to 
file  the  preliminary  papers  declaring  an  intent  to  become  a  citizen 
of  the  United  States,  or  who  in  any  naturalization  proceeding 
knowingly  procures  or  gives  false  testimony  as  to  any  material 
fact,  or  who  knowingly  makes  an  affidavit  false  as  to  any  material 
fact  required  to  be  proved  in  such  proceeding,  shall  be  fined  not 
more  than  five  thousand  dollars,  or  imprisoned  not  less  than  one 
nor  more  than  ten  years,  or  both. 

The  foregoing  provisions  concerning  naturalization  shall  not  be 
enforced  until  ninety  days  after  the  approval  hereof. 

Approved,  March  3,  1903. 

NOTE. — The  Act  of  February  14,  1903,  established  the  Department  of  Com- 
merce and  Labor  and  transferred  to  it  the  Immigration  Bureau  and  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Acts. 

The  Act  of  March  22,  1904  exempted  from  the  head-tax  citizens  of 
Newfoundland  entering  the  United  States. 

The  Acts  of  July  i,  1902  and  March  18,  1904  applied  the  immigration 
laws  to  the  Philippine  Islands. 

The  Act  of  April  27,  1904  extended  in  force  all  anti-Chinese  legislation 
without  limitation. 


Appendix  367 

TEXT  OF  THE  LODGE  ILLITERACY  TEST  BILL  (H.  R. 
7864),  AS  PASSED  BY  CONGRESS  IN  FEBRUARY,  1897, 
AND  VETOED  BY  PRESIDENT  CLEVELAND. 

"  SEC.  I.  That  section  I  of  the  Act  of  March  3,  1891,  in  amend- 
ment of  the  immigration  and  contract  labor  acts,  be,  and  hereby 
is,  amended  by  adding  to  the  classes  of  aliens  thereby  excluded 
from  admission  to  the  United  States  the  following:  All  persons 
physically  capable  and  over  sixteen  years  of  age  who  cannot  read 
and  write  the  English  language  or  some  other  language ;  but  a 
person  not  so  able  to  read  and  write  who  is  over  fifty  years  of 
age  and  who  is  the  parent  or  grandparent  of  a  qualified  immi- 
grant over  twenty-one  years  of  age  and  capable  of  supporting 
such  parent  or  grandparent,  may  accompany  such  immigrant,  or 
such  a  parent  or  grandparent  may  be  sent  for  and  come  to  join 
the  family  of  a  child  or  grandchild  over  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
similarly  qualified  and  capable,  and  a  wife  or  minor  child,  not 
so  able  to  read  and  write,  may  accompany  or  be  sent  for  and  come 
to  join  the  husband  or  parent  similarly  qualified  and  capable. 

SEC.  2.  For  the  purpose  of  testing  the  ability  of  the  immigrant 
to  read  and  write,  as  required  by  the  foregoing  section,  the  in- 
spection officers  shall  be  furnished  with  copies  of  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States,  printed  on  numbered  uniform  pasteboard 
slips,  each  containing  not  less  than  twenty  nor  more  than  twenty- 
five  words  of  said  constitution  printed  in  the  various  languages  of 
the  immigrants  in  double  small  pica  type.  These  slips  shall  be 
kept  in  boxes  made  for  the  purpose,  and  so  constructed  as  to 
conceal  the  slips  from  view,  each  box  to  contain  slips  of  but  one 
language,  and  the  immigrant  may  designate  the  language  in 
which  he  prefers  the  test  shall  be  made.  Each  immigrant  shall 
be  required  to  draw  one  of  said  slips  from  the  box  and  read,  and 
afterwards  write  out,  in  full  view  of  the  immigration  officer,  the 
words  printed  thereon.  Each  slip  shall  be  returned  to  the  box 
immediately  after  the  test  is  finished,  and  the  contents  of  the  box 
shall  be  shaken  up  by  an  inspection  officer  before  another  drawing 
is  made.  No  immigrant  failing  to  read  and  write  out  the  slip 
thus  drawn  by  him  shall  be  admitted,  but  he  shall  be  returned  to 
the  country  from  which  he  came  at  the  expense  of  the  steamship 
or  railroad  company  which  brought  him,  as  now  provided  by  law. 
The  inspection  officer  shall  keep  in  each  box  at  all  times  a  full 
number  of  said  printed  pasteboard  slips,  and  in  the  case  of  each 
excluded  immigrant  shall  keep  a  certified  memorandum  of  the 
number  of  the  slip  which  the  said  immigrant  failed  to  read  or 
copy  out  in  writing.  If  in  any  case,  from  any  unavoidable  cause, 
the  foregoing  slips  are  not  at  hand  for  use,  the  inspection  officers 
shall  carefully  and  thoroughly  test  the  ability  of  the  immigrant 
to  read  and  write,  using  the  most  appropriate  and  available  means 
at  their  command,  and  shall  state  fully  in  writing  the  reasons  why 
the  slips  are  lacking,  and  describe  the  substitute  and  method 
adopted  for  testing  the  ability  of  the  immigrant. 


368  Appendix 

SEC.  3.  That  the  provisions  of  the  act  of  March  3,  1893,  to 
facilitate  the  enforcement  of  the  immigration  and  contract  labor 
laws,  shall  apply  to  the  persons  mentioned  in  section  i  of  this  Act. 

SEC.  4.  That  it  shall  hereafter  be  unlawful  for  any  male  alien 
who  has  not  in  good  faith  made  his  declaration  before  the  proper 
court  of  his  intention  to  become  a  citizen  of  the  United  States 
to  be  employed  on  any  public  works  of  the  United  States  or  to 
come  regularly  or  habitually  into  the  United  States  by  land  or 
water  for  the  purpose  of  engaging  in  any  mechanical  trade  or 
manual  labor  for  wages  or  salary,  returning  from  time  to  time 
to  a  foreign  country. 

SEC.  5.  That  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  any  person,  partnership, 
company,  or  corporation  knowingly  to  employ  any  alien  coming 
into  the  United  States  in  violation  of  the  next  preceding  section 
of  this  act:  Provided,  that  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  not 
apply  to  the  employment  of  sailors,  deckhands,  or  other  employees 
of  vessels,  or  railroad  train  hands,  such  as  conductors,  engineers, 
brakemen,  firemen,  or  baggagemen,  whose  duties  require  them  to 
pass  over  the  frontier  to  reach  the  termini  of  their  runs,  or  to 
boatmen  or  guides  on  the  lakes  and  rivers  on  the  northern  border 
of  the  United  States. 

SEC.  6.  That  any  violation  of  the  provisions  of  sections  4  and 
5  of  this  act  by  any  alien  or  citizen  shall  be  deemed  a  misde- 
meanor, punishable  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  $500  or  by  imprison- 
ment, for  the  term  of  not  exceeding  one  year,  or  by  both  such 
fine  and  imprisonment,  in  the  discretion  of  the  court:  Provided, 
that  all  persons  convicted  of  a  violation  of  section  4  of  this  act 
shall  be  deported  to  the  country  whence  they  came. 

SEC.  7.  That,  notwithstanding  the  provisions  of  this  or  any 
other  existing  law,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  may  permit 
aliens  to  enter  this  country  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  new  arts 
or  industries  under  such  rules  and  regulations  as  he  may  provide. 

SEC.  8.  That  this  act  shall  not  apply  to  persons  arriving  in 
the  United  States  from  any  port  or  place  in  the  island  of  Cuba 
during  the  continuance  of  the  present  disorders  there  who  have 
heretofore  been  inhabitants  of  that  island. 

SEC.  9.    That  this  act  shall  take  effect  July  I,  1897. 

[Sections  4  to  6  constituted  the  so-called  Corliss  Amendment,  and  were 
no  part  of  the  original  Lodge  bill.] 


APPENDIX  IV 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  following  bibliography  is   intended  to  give  the  principal 
authorities;  it  is  not  in  any  sense  exhaustive. 


A.      BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

List  of  Books  (with  references  to  periodicals')  on  Immigration. 
Library  of  Congress  (1904).  [Contains  also  lists  of  Congres- 
sional Documents,  Annual  Reports,  and  Articles  in  Consular 
Reports.]  * 

Select  List  of  References  on  Chinese  Immigration.  Library  of 
Congress  (1904).  [Contains  also  lists  of  Government  Pub- 
lications, Congressional  Documents,  Reports  of  Debates.]  x 


B.     BOOKS 

Mayo- Smith,  Richmond.  Emigration  and  Immigration.  New 
York,  Scribners  (1892).  [The  best  general  book  on  the  sub- 
ject.] 

Atchinson,  Rena  M.  Un-American  Immigration.  Chicago. 
Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Co.  (1894). 

Walker,  Francis  A.  Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics. 
Vol.  2,  pp.  29-45,  4I7-45I-  Holt.  New  York.  (1899). 

Brandenburg,  Broughton.  Imported  Americans.  New  York. 
F.  A.  Stokes  &  Co.  (1904).  [Describes  conditions  abroad, 
especially  in  Italy;  also  inspection  at  Ellis  Island.] 

Evans-Gordon,  W.  The  Alien  Immigrant.  New  York.  Scrib- 
ners. (1903).  [A  description  of  the  condition  of  Hebrews 
in  European  _  countries  by  a  member  of  the  Royal  Com- 
mission on  Alien  Immigration.  The  book  is  written  from  the 
British  standpoint,  but  Chapter  xii.  discusses  the  situation 
in  the  United  States.] 

1  These    may    be    obtained    by    addressing    the    Librarian    of    Congress, 
Washington,   D.  C. 

369 


370  Appendix 

Roberts,  Peter.  Anthracite  Coal  Communities.  New  York. 
Macmillan.  (1904).  [A  study  of  the  social,  educational  and 
moral  life  of  the  Anthracite  Regions,  and  of  the  Slav 
laborers.] 

Warne,  F.  Julian.  The  Slav  Invasion.  Philadelphia.  Lippin- 
cott.  (1904).  [Discusses  the  effect  of  Slav  immigration  in 
the  mining  regions  of  Pennsylvania.] 

Whelpley,  James  D.  The  Problem  of  the  Immigrant.  London. 
Chapman  &  Hall.  (1905).  [Summarizes  the  laws  regarding 
immigration  in  the  United  States  and  foreign  countries.] 

Hunter,  Robert.  Poverty.  New  York.  Macmillan.  (1904). 
[Chapter  vi.  The  Immigrant] 

Eliot  Lord,  John  J.  D.  Trenor  and  Samuel  J.  Barrows.  The 
Italian  in  America.  New  York.  B.  F.  Buck  &  Co.  (1905). 

Seward,  George  F.  Chinese  Immigration.  New  York.  Scrib- 
ners.  (1881).  [A  brief  for  Chinese  labor  by  an  ex-minister 
to  China.  Cites  much  testimony  taken  before  Committees 
of  Congress.] 

C.      GOVERNMENT  REPORTS 

The  following  are  the  most  recent  and  valuable  reports: 

Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission.  Vol.  15,  pp.  1-840  (1901)  ; 
Vol.  19,  pp.  957-1030  (1902).  [The  most  recent  and  complete 
discussion  of  the  subject.  It  contains  a  large  amount  of 
testimony  taken  before  the  Commission,  and  valuable  special 
reports  by  experts.] 

Report  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Immigration.  54th  Cong., 
1st  Sess.  No.  290  (1896).  [Commonly  known  as  the  Lodge 
Report.  Reprinted  as  Senate  Report,  55th  Cong.,  1st  Sess., 
No.  13  (1897)-] 

Report  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Immigration.  57th  Cong., 

2d    Sess.,   No.   62    (1902).     [This  contains   the  most  recent 

testimony  of   experts   as  to  present  conditions  and  needed 
legislation.] 

Reports  of  the  Board  of  Trade  on  Alien  Immigration.  (Lon- 
don. 1893).  [The  best  single  report  on  immigration  in  the 
United  States  at  its  date.  Though  prepared  for  Great  Britain, 
it  contains  much  valuable  information,  including  opinions  of 
labor  leaders  and  experts.] 


Appendix  371 

Annual  Reports  of  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration.2 

Other  important  reports  are  the  following: 
Report  of  the  Immigration  Investigating  Commission.     (1895). 

Report  on  the  Importation  of  Contract  Labor.  50th  Cong.,  2d 
Sess.,  No.  3792  (1889). 

Report  of  the  Select  Committee  on  Immigration  and  Naturaliza- 
tion. 5ist  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  No.  3472  (1891).  [The  Owen 
Report] 

Report  of  the  House  Committee  on  Immigration  and  Natural- 
isation. 52d  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  No.  2090  (1892).  [The  Stump 
Report] 

Report  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Immigration.  52d  Cong., 
2d  Sess.,  No.  1333  (1893).  [The  Chandler  Report] 

Arrivals  of  Alien  Passengers  and  Immigrants  from  1820  to  1892. 
Bureau  of  Statistics  (1893).  [Gives  general  tables  and 
review.] 

D.       MAGAZINE  ARTICLES 

(i).     Descriptive  and  Statistical. 

"  Racial  Composition  of  the  American  People."  John  R.  Com- 
mons, in  Chautauquan,  vol.  38,  pp.  33-42,  118-125,  332'340» 
433-443,  533-543;  vol.  39,  pp.  13-22,  115-124,  217-227  (Sept. 
1903 — May  1904). 

"Foreign  Element  in  American  Civilization."  A.  H.  Hyde,  in 
Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  52,  p.  387  (Jan.  1898). 

"The  Immigrant."    Charities,  vol.  12,  No.  6  (Feb.  6,  1904). 
"The  Slav  in  America."    Charities,  vol.  13,  No.  10  (Dec.  3,  1904). 

"  Immigration  in  its  Relation  to  Pauperism."  Kate  H.  Claghorn, 
in  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science,  vol.  24,  p.  185  (July,  1904). 

"  Immigration  to  the  Southern  States."  Walter  L.  Fleming,  in 
Political  Science  Quarterly,  vol.  20,  p.  276  (June  1905). 

"  Immigration  and  the  Foreign-born  Population."  Richmond 
Mayo-Smith,  in  Publications  of  the  American  Statistical 
Association,  vol.  3,  p.  304  (March-June  1903). 

4  Recent  reports  can  usually  be  obtained  free  of  charge  by  addressing  the 
Immigration    Bureau,   Washington,    D.    C. 


372  Appendix 

Articles  by  Dr.  Allan  McLaughlin  of  the  United  States  Marine- 
Hospital  Service,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly: 

"The  Slavic  Immigrant,"  vol.  63,  p.  25  (May  1903). 

"The  Bright  Side  of  Russian  Immigration,"  vol.  64,  p.  66  (No- 
vember 1903). 

"  Immigration  and  the  Public  Health,"  vol.  64,  p.  232,  (Jan.  1904). 

"The  Immigrant,  Past  and  Present,"  vol.  65,  p.  224  (July  1904). 

"  Italian  and  other  Latin  Immigrants,"  vol.  65,  p.  341  (August 
1904). 

"  Hebrew,  Magyar  and  Levantine  Immigration,"  vol.  65,  p.  432 
(September  1904). 

"  Chinese  and  Japanese  Immigration,"  vol.  66,  p.  117  (Dec.  1904). 

"  Social  and  Political  Effects  of  Immigration,"  vol.  66,  p.  243 
(January  1905). 

"  How  Immigrants  are  Inspected,"  vol.  66,  p.  357  (February  1905). 

"  The  Scandinavians  in  the  Northwest."  Kendric  C.  Babcock,  in 
Forum,  vol.  14,  p.  103  (September  1892). 

"  Ethnic  Factors  in  the  Population  of  Boston."  Frederick  A. 
Bushee,  in  Publications  of  the  American  Economic  Associa- 
tion, 3d  Series,  vol.  4,  No.  2  (May  1903). 

"The  Federal  Contract  Labor  Law."  Prescptt  F.  Hall,  in 
Harvard  Law  Review,  vol.  II,  p.  525  (April  1898). 

Publications  of  the  Immigration  Restriction  League.  Nos.  1-43. 
[These  deal  with  statistical  and  other  aspects  of  immigration 
and  can  be  obtained  free  of  charge  by  addressing  the  Secre- 
tary, 60  State  St.,  Boston,  Mass.] 

(2).    In  Favor  of  Further  Restriction. 

"  The  Restriction  of  Irrtmigration."  Hon.  Henry  Cabot  Lodge, 
in  North  American  Review,  vol.  152,  p.  27  (January  1891). 

"  Lynch  Law  and  Unrestricted  Immigration."  Hon.  Henry  Cabot 
Lodge,  in  North  American  Review,  vol.  152,  p.  602  (May 
1891). 

"  Methods  of  Restricting  Immigration."  Hon.  Wm.  E.  Chandler, 
in  Forum,  vol.  13,  p.  128  (March  1892). 

"  Our  National  Dumping-Ground."  Charles  Stewart  Smith,  in 
North  American  Review,  vol.  154,  p.  432  (April  1892). 

"The  Immigration  Question."  John  H.  Noble,  in  Political  Sci- 
ence Quarterly,  vol.  7,  p.  232. 

"The  Mine  Laborers  in  Pennsylvania."  Henry  Rood,  in  Forum, 
vol.  14,  p.  no  (September  1892). 


Appendix  373 

"  Alien  Degradation  of  American  Character."  Sydney  G.  Fisher, 
in  Forum,  vol.  14,  p.  608  (January  1893). 

"Has  Immigration  Increased  Population?"  Sydney  G.  Fisher, 
in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  48,  p.  244  (December  1895). 

"  Restriction  of  Immigration."  General  Francis  A.  Walker,  in 
Atlantic  Monthly,  vol.  77,  p.  822  (June  1896). 

"  The  Immigration  Question."  Hon.  J.  H.  Senner,  in  Annals  of 
the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  vol. 
10,  p.  I  (July  1897). 

"  Immigration  and  the  Educational  Test."  Prescott  F.  Hall,  in 
North  American  Review,  vol.  165,  p.  393  (October  1897). 

"  Immigration,  Hard  Times,  and  the  Veto."  John  Chetwood,  Jr., 
in  Arena,  vol.  18,  p.  788  (December,  1897). 

"  A  Pennsylvania  Colliery  Village.  A  Polyglot  Community." 
Henry  E.  Rood,  in  Century,  vol.  55,  p.  809  (April  1898). 

"  The  Menace  of  Immigration."  Gunton's  Magazine,  vol.  16,  o. 
166,  (1899). 

"  New  Problems  of  Immigration."  Prescott  F.  Hall,  in  Forum, 
vol.  30,  p.  555  (January  1901). 

"The  Declining  Birthrate  and  its  Cause."  Dr.  Frederick  A. 
Bushee,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  63,  p.  355  (August 
1903). 

"  Selection  of  Immigration."  Prescott  F.  Hall,  in  Annals  of 
the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science"  vol. 
24,  p.  167  (July  1904). 

"  The  Agricultural  Distribution  of  Immigrants."  Robert  DeC. 
Ward,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  66,  p.  166  (December 
1904). 

"  Immigration  the  Annihilator  of  Our  Native  Stock."  Robert 
Hunter,  in  The  Commons,  vol.  9,  p.  114  (April  1904). 

"  The  Restriction  of  Immigration."  Robert  DeC.  Ward,  in  North 
American  Review,  vol.  181,  p.  226  (August  1904). 

"  Our  Imported  Criminals."  Broughton  Brandenburg,  in  Collier's 
Weekly,  vol.  34  (November  19  and  26,  December  10,  1904). 

"  Underground  Immigration."  Broughton  Brandenburg,  in  Char- 
ities, vol.  14,  p.  896  (July  i,  1905). 


374  Appendix 

"How  Shall  We  Select  our  Immigrants."  Robert  DeC.  Ward, 
in  Charities,  vol.  14,  p.  906  (July  8,  1905). 

"  Immigration  and  the  South."  Robert  DeC.  Ward,  in  Atlantic, 
vol.  96,  p.  611  (November  1905). 

(3)-    Opposed  to  Further  Restriction. 

"  Our  National  Dumping-Ground."  John  B.  Weber,  in  North 
American  Review,  vol.  154,  p.  424  (April  1892). 

"  Incalculable  Room  for  Immigrants."  Edward  Atkinson,  in 
Forum,  vol.  13,  p.  360  (May  1892). 

"  What  Immigrants  Contribute  to  Industry."  George  F.  Parker, 
in  Forum,  vol.  14,  p.  600  (January  1893). 

"  A  Practical  Remedy  for  Evils  of  Immigration."  Gustav  H. 
Schwab,  in  Forum,  vol.  14,  p.  805  (February  1893). 

"  A  Few  Facts  and  Thoughts  on  Immigration."  Hon.  J.  H. 
Senner,  in  Independent,  vol.  45,  p.  I  (November  2,  1893). 

"  How  We  Restrict  Immigration."  Hon.  J.  H.  Senner,  in  North 
American  Review,  vol.  158,  p.  494  (April  1894). 

"  Immigration  from  Italy."  Hon.  J.  H.  Senner,  in  North  Ameri- 
can Review,  vol.  162,  p.  649  (June  1896). 

"  Should  Immigration  be  Restricted  ?  "  S.  G.  Croswell,  in  North 
American  Review,  vol.  164,  p.  526  (May  1897). 

"An  Educational  Test  for  Immigrants."  Hon.  J.  H.  Senner, 
in  Independent,  vol.  50,  p.  77  (January  20,  1898). 

"  Some  Immigrants  from  Oversea."  K.  Munroe,  in  Harper's 
Magazine,  vol.  96,  p.  429  (February  1898). 

"Our  Immigrants  and  Ourselves."  K.  H.  Claghorn,  in  Atlantic 
Monthly,  vol.  86,  p.  535  (October  1900). 

"  The  Immigration  Problem."  Roland  P.  Faulkner,  in  Political 
Science  Quarterly,  vol.  19,  p.  32  (March  1904). 

"Is  the  New  Immigration  Dangerous  to  the  Country?"  O.  P. 
Austin,  in  North  American  Review,  vol.  178,  p.  558  (April 
1904). 

"  Proposals  Affecting  Immigration."  John  J.  D.  Trenor,  in  An- 
nals of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science,  vol.  24,  p.  221  (July  1904). 

"The  Folly  of  Chinese  Exclusion."  H.  H.  Bancroft,  in  North 
American  Review,  vol.  179,  p.  263  (August  1904). 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Act   of   March   3,    1903     (see 

"  Legislation") 

Adams,  John,  views  of,  206 

Adams,   Robert,   Jr.,   289 

Advertising,  for  immigrants 
limited,  214;  liability  for  un- 
lawful, 221;  by  steamship 
companies,  214,  221,  245 

Africans,  illiteracy  of,  81 

Ages,  of  immigrants,  67;  pro- 
posed exclusion  of  aged  per- 
sons, 294 

Agents,  of  steamship  lines,  23, 
26,  27,  32,  33,  132,  240; 
solicitation  by,  23,  25-27,  32, 
33,  240,  245-248 

Agriculture,  Japanese  in,  59 ; 
Hebrews  not  fitted  for,  50, 
303;  Italians  in,  33,  56,  302; 
farmers  and  laborers  among 
immigrants,  75,  77;  immi- 
grants needed  in,  58,  122; 
wages  in,  128;  less  labor  rel- 
atively needed  in,  129,  130; 
in  corn  belt,  130;  proposed 
distribution  of  immigrants 
for,  299-306;  Syrians  and 
Armenians  not  fitted  for, 
303;  Chinese  in,  328 

Air-space,  regulations  as  to, 
'201;  proposed  increase  of, 
290,  348. 

Aliens  (see  also  "Foreign- 
born";  "Immigrants";  "Nat- 
uralization "  ;  "  Political  Ef- 
fects"), definition  of,  192; 
present  law  applies  to,  217; 
in  transit,  218 

American  Federation  of  Labor, 
endorsement  of  illiteracy 
test  by,  125,  275,  312 


Anarchists,  attract  attention, 
154;  debarred,  155,  219;  race 
and,  156;  cannot  be  natural- 
ized, 155,  190;  liability  for 
entry  of,  222 ;  numbers  de- 
barred, 240 

Apartment  houses,  large  fam- 
ilies not  wanted  in,  116 

Appeals,  from  orders  deport- 
ing, 222,  229,  236;  necessity 
of  uniformity  in,  296 

Armenians,  20,  41,  42 ;  illiteracy 
of,  42,  82 ;  earlier  immigrants 
displaced  by,  126;  padrone 
system  among,  133 ;  not  fitted 
for  agriculture,  303 

Arrest  of  aliens  unlawfully  in 
country,  229 

Artificial  selection,  by  steam- 
ship companies,  26,  321 ;  of 
early  Baltic  stock,  106,  173; 
duty  of,  102 

Asiatics  (see  also  "Chinese"; 
"  Japanese  " ;  "  Syrians  ") , 
immigration  of,  7,  82;  phy- 
sique of,  87;  in  United 
States,  40 ;  naturalization  of, 
184;  not  desired,  316 

Assimilation,  i  n  Colonial 
period,  5 ;  of  Hebrews,  52 ; 
religion  as  'a  bar  to,  52; 
generally,  172-182;  numbers 
of  immigrants  and,  175 ;  es- 
sential to  democracy,  176; 
illiteracy  and,  179-180; 
through  public  schools,  178; 
religion  and,  181 ;  attempts 
to  prevent,  182;  naturaliza- 
tion and,  198;  movements 
for,  306-308 

Assisted    immigrants,    propor- 


377 


378 


Index 


tion  of,  18;  in  general,  27-33, 
83 ;  money  devoted  to,  73 ; 
coaching  of,  32,  33,  59,  83; 
follow  previous  immigration, 
91 ;  excluded,  214,  219 ;  num- 
bers debarred,  240;  proposal 
to  reduce,  297 

Associated  Charities  of  Bos- 
ton, 165 ;  endorse  illiteracy 
test,  278,  314 

Attitude,  of  States  toward  im- 
migration, 122,  303,  311,  315, 
316;  of  public,  309-320 

Australia,  emigration  to,  34, 
107 

Austrians,  as  immigrants,  28; 
in  United  States,  91;  illit- 
eracy of,  141,  151 ;  ability 
of,  to  speak  English,  145 ; 
driminality  of,  151;  aliens 
among,  192 

Austro-Hungarians,  as  immi- 
grants, 39;  occupations  of, 
76;  insanity  among,  158,  159; 
religion  of,  181 ;  disease 
among,  244 


Balfour,  Arthur  J.,  100 

Bartholdt,  Richard,  264 

Beggars,  professional,  exclud- 
ed, 219 

Belgians,  occupations  of,  76; 
illiteracy  of,  141;  desired  as 
immigrants,  315 

Bibliography,  369-374 

"  Birds  of  passage,"  generally, 
77-79;  Italians,  13,  78,  185, 
192;  Polish,  13;  Slovak,  13, 
185,  192;  Canadian,  13,  78, 
293 ;  miners  as,  13 ;  British, 
78;  Irish,  78;  desirability  of, 
78;  return  how  often,  79; 
effect  of,  on  birthrate,  119; 
and  naturalization,  185 ;  pro- 
posed exclusion  of,  293 

Birth-rate,  of  Slavs  falling,  65, 
112;  immigration  lowers, 
107-120;  of  natives,  108,  ni- 
120 ;  of  foreign-born,  112- 


116,  123;  causes  of  falling, 
15,  107-120;  proportion  of 
children  to  females,  in;  of 
Teutonic  and  Keltic  immi- 
grants, 112;  in  Massachu- 
setts, 113,  114,  347;  of  col- 
lege graduates,  115;  in  Bos- 
ton, 116;  of  negroes,  116; 
Herbert  Spencer's  theory  as 
to,  116;  exclusion  of  children 
from  apartment  houses,  116; 
and  racial  decay,  117;  in 
Southern  States,  117;  in 
Western  States,  117;  in  Eu- 
rope, 117,  347;  effect  of  emi- 
gration on,  118,  321;  birds  of 
passage  and,  119;  increase 
among  natives,  136;  tables  of 
comparative,  347 

Bohemians,  as  immigrants, 
63,  64;  money  shown  by,  71; 
illiteracy  of,  81,  82;  in 
United  States,  91 

Bonds,  formerly  required  by 
States,  205 ;  acceptance  of, 
regulated,  215;  of  small 
value,  215;  under  Act  of 
1903,  230,  231 ;  suggestions  as 
to,  297 

Bosnians,  as  Immigrants,  63; 
illiteracy  of,  81 

Brandenburg,  Broughton,  ad- 
vocates inspection  at  home  of 
immigrant,  284 

Braun,   Marcus,  32,  197,  247 

British  (see  also  "English; 
"  Scotch  ")  ,  as  immigrants, 
4.  29.  31,  38,  39;  as  emi- 
grants, 34,  107;  Aliens  Act, 
21,  51;  in  United  States,  40, 
41,  91 ;  money  brought  by,  71, 
72 ;  illiteracy  of,  72 ;  occupa- 
tions of,  43,  76 ;  as  "  birds  of 
passage,"  78;  in  mining  re- 
gions displaced  by  Slavs,  123, 
126;  pauperism  among,  162; 
religion  of,  181 ;  naturaliza- 
tion of,  184 

Brooks,  Phillips,  323 

Bulgarians,  as  immigrants,  63; 
illiteracy  of,  81 


Index 


379 


Cabin  passengers,  examination 
of,  217,  226,  232 

California,  Italians  in,  33; 
Japanese  in,  58 

Canada,  immigration  into,  13, 
32,  34,  107;  immigration 
from,  39,  40,  42,  43,  126; 
citizens  of,  exempt  from 
head-tax,  218 ;  immigration 
through,  generally,  251-255; 
undesirable,  31,  32,  33,  59; 
agreements  with  transporta- 
tion companies,  as  to,  219, 
252;  immigration  laws  of, 
254;  application  of  illiteracy 
test  to  immigrants  from,  280 

Canadians,  "  birds  of  passage," 
13,  78,  293;  deportation  of, 
to  Europe  and  Asia,  230, 
254;  numbers  of,  debarred, 
239,  253 ;  volume  of,  251 ; 
smuggling  of,  32,  59,  221, 
252-255 ;  rules  for  inspection 
of,  226 

Carver,  T.  N.,  130 

Causes  of  immigration,  14-35; 
in  general,  14-16;  industrial 
depression,  6,  7;  political  agi- 
tation, 6,  7,  20-22;  prosperity 
of  this  country,  17-19;  solici- 
tation of  friends  and  rela- 
tives, 18;  employment  agen- 
cies, 18;  padrone  system,  19; 
religious  persecution,  8,  16, 
20-22;  facility  of  transit,  22- 
25 ;  solicitation  of  steamship 
agents,  23,  25-27,  55 ;  assisted 
immigration,  27-33  \  war, 
33;  epidemics,  33;  devel- 
opment of  industries,  33; 
tariff,  33 ;  fear  of  restrictive 
legislation,  35 ;  advertise- 
ments of  American  railways, 
35 ;  Mormon  missionaries,  35 

Chandler,  William  E.,  260,  283 

Charitable  societies  assist  im- 
migrants, 31 

Chinese,  displaced  by  Japanese, 
59 ;  money  brought  by,  71 ; 
illiteracy  of,  81 ;  effect  of,  on 
labor,  126;  crime  among,  155; 


seamen,  238;  numbers  of, 
327 ;  debarred,  335 ;  destina- 
tion of,  327;  "Highbinders," 
*55>  328;  occupations  of,  328; 
coolies,  59,  60,  155,  210,  211, 
327-334 ;  Burlingame  treaty, 
329,  330 ;  discrimination 
against,  329,  331 ;  State  laws 
against  330;  Geary  Act, 
332 

Chinese  Exclusion  Acts,  eva- 
sion of,  59,  60,  238;  seamen 
and,  238;  proposed  applica- 
tion to  other  races,  289;  pub- 
lic opinion  regarding,  309; 
provisions  of,  327-335J  policy 
of,  335 

Cholera,  8,  17 

Civil  war,  effect  on  immigra- 
tion, 7,  17,  209 

Cleveland,  Grover,  veto  of 
Lodge  bill  by,  266,  272,  293, 

317 

"  Coaching  "  of  immigrants,  32, 
33,  59,  83,  224,  247,  248 

Colonial  period,  immigration  in, 
4,  37;  views  as  to  restriction 
in,  206 

Colonist,  definition  of,  3 

Commissioner  -  General,  office 
of,  established,  214 ;  duties  of, 
231 

Commons,  John  R.,  189,  306 

"  Concentration  of  advantages," 
desire  for,  affects  birthrate, 
65,  109-111 

Congestion  in  cities,  21,  169- 
172;  of  Hebrews,  50;  of  Syr- 
ians, 66;  as  cause  of  unem- 
ployment, 68;  movement  to- 
ward cities,  129,  169 ;  foreign- 
born  in  cities,  169-171,  343- 
345 ;  foreign  parentage  popu- 
lation, 170;  causes  of,  170, 
171 ;  race  and,  171 ;  slums, 
153,  171,  172,  346 

Congressmen,  interference  of, 
with  administration  of  laws, 
223 

Consular  inspection,  proposed, 
259,  272,  280-288;  plan  of 


38o 


Index 


Brpughton  Brandenburg,  284 ; 
objections  to,  284-287 

Contract  laborers,  contractors 
stimulate  immigration  of,  31 ; 
Greeks  as,  48;  padrone  sys- 
tem as  to,  131-133;  those  de- 
ported as,  excluded,  219; 
liability  for  importing,  221 ; 
deportation  of,  suspended 
when,  227;  numbers  debar- 
red, 240;  affidavits  of,  250; 
deportation  a  detriment 
when,  250;  coming  to  join 
friends  and  relatives,  251 ; 
importation  of,  without  ex- 
press contract,  251 ;  smug- 
gling of,  across  border,  253- 
255;  and  consular  inspection, 
287 

Contract  labor  laws,  generally, 
17.  133.  212-213,  220,  248-251 ; 
effect  of,  248-251;  origin  of, 
248;  public  opinion  as  to, 

309 

Contractors,  desire  cheap 
labor,  122 

Convicts,  as  immigrants,  29,  30, 
83;  excluded,  211,  219;  num- 
bers debarred,  239 

Coolies,  Japanese,  59,  60;  Chin- 
ese, 59,  60,  155,  210,  211,  327- 
334;  traffic  in,  regulated,  210, 
211 

Corliss  Amendment,  265,  293 

Courts,  revisory  power  of,  214, 
215 ;  decisions  affecting  con- 
tract labor  laws,  249 

Crime  (see  also  "Dependents 
and  Delinquents");  con- 
victs excluded,  29,  30,  83, 
2li,  219;  segregation  of 
criminals,  100;  as  an  effect 
of  immigration,  146-156, 
among  foreign-born,  146-156, 
208;  among  juveniles,  148, 
149;  statistics  of,  unsatis- 
factory, 150;  among  various 
nationalities,  151 ;  homicide, 
151;  in  mining  regions, 
152;  in  New  York  City, 
152,  153;  among  immi- 


grants, 41-66,  83,  146-156, 
166;  among  second  genera- 
tion, 148,  149,  153,  154;  of- 
fenses against  immigration 
acts,  220;  illiteracy  and,  279; 
among  Chinese,  328 

Croatians,  as  immigrants,  62- 
65;  money  brought  by,  71; 
occupations  of,  76;  illiteracy 
of,  81,  82 

Cubans,  money  brought  by,  ^\ ; 
exempt  from  head-tax,  218; 
illiteracy  of,  81 


Dalmatians,  as  immigrants,  63; 
illiteracy  of,  81 

Danes  (see  also  "  Scandina- 
vians"), illiteracy  of,  141; 
proportion  of,  in  cities,  171 ; 
as  immigrants,  37,  60-62 

Debarred  and  returned,  con- 
victs, 83,  239;  idiots,  84,  239; 
insane,  84,  239;  diseased,  87, 

239,  240,  244;   provisions   as 
to,  221-223,  227-230;  numbers 
of,   generally,   251-256;    pau- 
pers, 239,  240;  persons  likely 
to  become  public  charges,  239, 
240 ;    contract    laborers,    239, 

240,  250;     prostitutes,    240; 
procurers,     240 ;     anarchists, 
240 ;      assisted      immigrants, 
240;    at    border    ports,    239, 
253;  at  foreign  ports,  242 

Democrats,  views  of,  as  to  re- 
striction, 60,  310 

Dependents  and  delinquents, 
assisted  to  emigrate  by  for- 
eign governments,  29-31; 
cost  of  supporting,  29,  167; 
laws  relating  to  immigration 
of,  30;  segregation  of,  100; 
burden  of,  166-169,  244;  in 
public  institutions  166;  no- 
tification of  probable,  262 

Deportation,  cost  of,  29;  diffi- 
culty of  securing,  160,  244; 
of  contract  laborers,  213;  of 
debarred,  214,  227-230,  242- 
245;  arrest  and,  within  three 


Index 


years,  229;  card  catalog  of 
arrivals  a  help  toward,  238; 
of  contract  laborers  a  detri- 
ment when,  250;  on  medical 
certificate,  87,  242-245,  261; 
proposed  extension  of  period 
of,  294 

De  Tocqueville,  15 

Dexter,  F.  B.,  4 

Disease  (see  also  "  Poor 
Physique"),  definition  of 
loathsome  or  dangerous,  84; 
among  immigrants  generally, 
84-87;  among  Greeks,  48; 
among  Hebrews,  21,  51,  259; 
among  Italians,  56;  among 
Syrians,  65 ;  steamships  fined 
for  bringing,  21,  157,  221,  225, 
241 ;  epidemics  of,  as  cause  of 
immigration,  26,  157 ;  cholera, 
85;  epilepsy,  84,  168,  219,  233; 
favus,  84;  smallpox,  84,  157; 
trachoma,  48,  84,  85,  157, 
242;  tuberculosis,  51,  85,  87, 
159,  259;  yellow  fever,  159; 
venereal,  85 ;  numbers  de- 
ported on  medical  certificate, 
87,  242-245,  261 ;  infant  mor- 
tality, 119;  among  foreign- 
born,  157-160;  deficit  of  hos- 
pitals, 157-159;  immigrants 
cannot  read  regulations,  159; 
immigrants  with,  barred,  214, 
219;  penalty  for  bringing 
persons  with,  26,  157,  221, 
225,  241 ;  rejection  of  those 
with,  222;  political  pressure 
to  prevent  deportation  of 
tftose  with,  223 ;  deportation 
of  guardian  of  person  with, 
223;  examination  for,  233; 
numbers  debarred  for,  84, 
239,  240,  244;  treated  in  im- 
migrant hospitals,  237,  244; 
persons  with,  excluded  by 
Canada,  254;  detection  of, 
under  consular  inspection, 
287 

Distribution  of  immigrants, 
agricultural,  33,  50,  56,  59, 
302;  relation  of  money 


brought  to,  72;  destinations 
of  the  various  races,  41-66, 
90 ;  generally,  88-95  J  foreign- 
born  in  United  States,  88-95; 
concentration  in  certain 
States,  89-95 ;  as  remedy  for 
immigration  evils,  299-307 ; 
of  Hebrews,  303 ;  wishes  of 
States  as  to,  122,  303;  rail- 
roads and  steamship  compa- 
nies advocate,  304;  only  a 
palliative,  306;  from  city 
slums,  302-305,  316;  tables 
showing,  343-345,  346 

District  attorney,  duties  of, 
296 

Du  Mont,  Arsene,  118 

Dutch,  colonies  of,  5,  37; 
money  brought  by,  71 ;  illiter- 
acy of,  81,  141 ;  proportion  of, 
in  cities,  171 ;  desired  as  im- 
migrants, 315,  316 


Economic  conditions,  67-79 
Economic  effects  of  immigra- 
tion generally,  121-138;  de- 
mand for  labor,  121-123;  ef- 
fect on  wages  and  standard 
of  living,  123-131 ;  padrone 
system,  131-133;  sweating 
system,  133-135;  unemploy- 
ment, 135-139 

Education    (see    also    "  Illiter- 
acy"), in  Italy,  promoted  by 
fear  of  legislation,  35 ;  small 
desire    for,    among    Syrians, 
66;  in  mining  regions,  127 
Educational  Alliance,   179,  307 
Effects  of  immigration,  racial, 
99-120;     economic,     121-138; 
social,  139-182;  political,  183- 
200 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  122 
Emigration,  from  United  States, 
11-13;    discouraged    by    for- 
eign governments,  28;  lowers 
birthrate,  118 

Employment  agencies,  as  pro- 
motors  of  immigration,  18, 
19 


382 


Index 


English,  (see  also  "British"), 
as  immigrants,  43,  44;  money 
shown  by,  71 ;  illiteracy  of, 
81,  82,  141,  151 ;  ability  to 
speak,  144-146 ;  criminality  of, 
151;  disease  among,  158;  in- 
sanity amQng,  158;  depend- 
ents and  delinquents,  166; 
proportion  of,  in  cities,  171 ; 
desired  as  immigrants,  315  _ 

Epidemics  as  a  cause  of  immi- 
gration, 33 ;  effect  of,  on  race 
stock,  100 

Epileptics,  debarred,  84,  219; 
in  United  States,  168;  in- 
spection of,  233 

Ethics  of  regulation,  gener- 
ally,  320-323 ;  restriction  con- 
sidered immoral,  317;  duty 
to  preserve  democracy,  320, 
322 

Evolution,  14,  99 


Fairbanks,   Charles   W.,   advo- 
cated illiteracy  test,  269,  271 
Farmers'     National     Congress, 

316 

Farr,  William,  118 
Faulkner,  Roland  P.,  79 
Favus    (see  "Disease") 
Federalists,  views  of,  206 
Finns,  as  immigrants,  8,  20,   44 ; 
money   brought   by,   71 ;    oc- 
cupations of,  45,  76;   illiter- 
acy of,  81,  82,  141 ;  diseased 
and     defective,     85 ;     aliens 
among,  192 

Foreign-born,  in  United  States, 
1890  and  1900,  40;  increase 
of,  1890  to  1900,  40,  89;  dis- 
tribution of,  88-95  '>  marriage 
rates  among,  113,  114;  birth- 
rates among,  113,  114,  115; 
illiteracy  of,  140,  141,  142; 
ability  of,  to  speak  English, 
144-146;  newspapers  publish- 
ed by,  145,  315 ;  crime  among, 
146-156,  166,  279;  increase  of 
homicide  due  to,  151 ;  insanity 
among,  156,  157,  158,  166;  an- 


archy and  socialism  among, 
154-156;  disease  among,  157- 
160;  burden  of,  upon  hospi- 
tals, 157-159;  pauperism 
among,  160-166;  tend  to 
cities,  169-172;  voting  power 
of,  185-189;  joining  labor 
unions,  313;  societies  among, 
269,  307-309,  3i8,  319 

"  Foreign  contiguous  terri- 
t  o  r  y  "  (see  "  Canada  " ; 
"  Mexico") 

Foreign  governments,  assist 
immigration,  27-30,  83 ;  at- 
tempts of,  to  prevent  assimi- 
lation, 182;  restraints  upon 
emigration  by,  247;  illiteracy 
test  adopted  by,  275 ;  assist 
protective  and  distributing 
societies,  303,  307 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  4,  123 

Fraud,  in  naturalization,  193- 
IQ5»  !97>  24J  J  m  entering 
country,  32,  59,  252-255,  298 

French,  as  immigrants,  5,  16, 
20,  28,  38,  45 ;  Huguenots,  5, 

16,  20,  46,  47 ;  money  brought 
by,  7i,  72;    illiteracy  of,  72, 
81,  141,  151 ;  occupations  of, 
45,  76 ;  in  United  States,  91 ; 
criminality  of,   151 ;    insanity 
among,   158 

French  Canadians,  characteris- 
tics of,  42,  43 ;  birthrate  of. 
113;  have  displaced  earlier 
labor,  126;  displaced  by  Syr- 
ians, 126;  ability  of,  to  speak 
English,  145 ;  aliens  among, 
192 

Friends  and  relatives  as  a  cause 
of  immigration,  18,  31 ;  as 
cause  of  congestion  in  cities, 
170;  sent  for  when,  235; 
aliens  joining,  how  far  con- 
tract laborers,  251;  fictitious, 
298 

Gannett,  Henry,  169 
Germans,  as  immigrants,  4,  6, 

17,  36,  37,  3.8,  39,  46-48,  no; 
characteristics  of,  46-48;  emi- 


Index 


gration  of,  to  South  Amer- 
ica, 35,  107 ;  in  United  States, 
40,  41,  91 ;  money  shown  by, 
71,  72;  illiteracy  of,  72,  81,  82, 
141,  151 ;  editors  and  steam- 
ship agents,  32 ;  occupations 
of,  46,  77 ;  birthrate  among, 
113;  in  mining  regions,  dis- 
placed by  Slavs,  127;  ability 
to  speak  English,  145 ;  crim- 
inality of,  151;  disease 
among,  158;  insanity  among, 
158,  159;  pauperism  among, 
162 ;  dependents  and  delin- 
quents among,  166,  167;  pro- 
portion of,  in  cities,  171 ;  re- 
ligion of,  181,  209;  naturali- 
zation of,  184,  185,  192; 
politics  of,  183,  188;  aliens 
among,  192 ;  opposition  to  il- 
literacy test  by,  268,  269,  319 ; 
desired  as  immigrants,  315, 
3i6 

Gompers,  Samuel,   125,  312 
Grasserie,  Raoul  de  la,  188 
Greeks,     as     immigrants,     48; 
money  shown  by,  71 ;   occu- 
pations of,  48,  76;   illiteracy 
of,  8l,  82,  141 ;  padrone  sys- 
tem   among,    48,     132,    133; 
criminality    of,     153;     aliens 
among,   192 

Guaranties  (see  also 
"Bonds"),  verbal,  that  aliens 
will  not  become  public 
charges,  223,  231 


Hawaii,  Japanese  in,  58;  immi- 
gration laws  apply  to,  218 

Head-tax,  imposed  by  States, 
203-206;  in  Act  of  1882,  212; 
in  Act  of  1903,  218;  exemp- 
tions from,  218;  paid  by 
steamships,  218;  on  persons 
coming  from  foreign  con- 
tiguous territory,  219;  pro- 
posed, 256,  257 

Hebrew  Charities,  United,  31, 
50,  159,  162,  307 

Hebrews      (see     also     "  Rus- 


sians"),  as   immigrants,   16, 

20,  49-52 ;   characteristics  of, 
49-52;  effect  of  ghettoes  on, 

21,  50,    303;    British    Aliens 
Act  aimed  at,  21 ;  world  dis- 
tribution   of,    49;    in    sweat- 
shops, 50;   poor  physique  of, 
50;    money  brought    by,    71; 
property  owned  by,  74;  occu- 
pations of,  49,  76 ;   illiteracy 
of,  81,  82,  151;  diseased  and 
defective,  85,  244;  in  United 
States,   91,   92,    94;    padrone 
system    among,    132;    crimi- 
nality of,    151;    tuberculosis 
among,    159,  259;   pauperism 
among,  162,   163 ;  naturaliza- 
tion of,   185;  voting  by,  183, 
187;    opposition   to   illiteracy 
test  by.    264;    not   fitted    for 
agriculture,  50,  303 ;  distribu- 
tion of,  303 

Heredity,    influence    of,    99-101 

Herzegovinians,  as  immigrants, 
63 ;  illiteracy  of,  81 

Holland,  immigration  from,  5, 
37,  71,  81,  141,  171,  315,  3i6 

Homicides,  increase  of,  151 ;  at- 
tract attention,  154 

Homogeneity,  of  early  life  in 
United  States,  no,  122;  pro- 
duces great  men,  172 

Hospitals,  burden  of  foreign- 
born  upon,  157-159;  treat- 
ment in  immigrant,  237,  244 

Huguenots,  5,   16,  20,  46,  47 

Hungarians  (see  also  "  Mag- 
yars"), as  immigrants,  25; 
in  United  States,  91,  92 ;  illit- 
eracy of,  141,  151 ;  criminality 
of,  151,  152;  socialism 
among,  156;  aliens  among, 
192 


Idiots  (see  also  "  Insane ") 
debarred,  84,  212,  219;  in 
United  States,  168;  inspec- 
tion of,  233 ;  numbers  de- 
barred, 239 

Illiteracy,  of  various  races,  41- 


384 


Index 


66,  72;  relation  of,  to  money 
brought,  72 ;  definition  of, 
80;  generally,  80-83,  139-146; 
relation  of  sex  to,  82;  rela- 
tion of  poor  physique  to,  87; 
in  United  States,  139-141, 
274;  in  Europe,  141,  144;  re- 
turns as  to,  unreliable,  143; 
ability  to  speak  English,  144- 
146;  relation  of,  to  crime, 
148;  relation  of,  to  disease, 
159;  of  slum  population, 
171 ;  relation  of,  to  assimil- 
ation, 177-180;  illiterates  not 
desired  as  immigrants,  316 

Illiteracy  test,  labor  unions 
favoring,  125;  proposed,  216, 
262-280;  votes  on,  264,  265, 
267,  269,  270;  Corliss  Amend- 
ment to,  265,  293 ;  vetoed  by 
President  Cleveland,  266, 
272,  293 ;  advocated  by  Im- 
migration Restriction 
League,  262-280 ;  endorse- 
ments of,  275-277;  opposition 
to,  by  Hebrews,  264;  by 
steamship  companies,  265,  269, 
271 ;  by  Immigration  Pro- 
tective League,  268,  270;  by 
Germans,  269;  by  railroads, 
271 ;  and  consular  inspection 
272 ;  merits  of,  272-275 ;  ef- 
fect of  expected  passage  of, 
in  Italy,  143,  275 ;  adopted 
in  foreign  countries,  275 ; 
and  criminals,  279;  applica- 
tion of,  to  citizens  of  con- 
tiguous territory,  280 

Immigrants,  definition  of,  3, 
217 ;  money  value  of,  67-75 ; 
ages  of,  67;  cost  of  bringing 
up,  67 ;  and  "  alien  imnii- 
grants,"  217;  movements  for 
protection  and  assimilation 
of,  306-308 

Immigration,  history  of,  3-13; 
future  of,  9 ;  volume  of, 
339-341 ;  compared  with  pop- 
ulation, iq;  causes  of,  6,  7, 
J4-35  J  artificial  selection  of, 
26;  free  movement  and  vol- 


ume of,  35 ;  racial  conditions 
of,  36-66;  economic  condi- 
tions of,  67-79 ;  social  condi- 
tions of,  80-95  J  proposed 
suspension  of,  85,  288 ;  racial 
effects  of,  99-120;  economic 
effects  of,  121-138;  social  ef- 
fects of,  139-182;  political  ef- 
fects of,  183-200;  prevention 
of,  by  other,  106 ;  lowers 
birthrate,  107-120;  and  pop- 
ulation, 108,  113;  and  natu- 
ralization, 198;  by  nationali- 
ties, 342,  343;  distribution  of, 
299-307,  343-3455  in  slums, 
346 ;  birthrates  among,  347 ; 
history  of  legislation  as  to, 
201-238;  effect  of  present 
laws  as  to,  239-255; -proposed 
legislation  as  to,  256-298; 
remedies  for  evils  of,  299- 
308;  public  opinion  as  to, 
309-320;  ethics  of  regulating, 
320-325 ;  Chinese,  327-335 ; 
text  of  present  laws  regard- 
ing, 351-368;  resolutions  of 
National  Immigration  Con- 
ference as  to,  348-351;  bibli- 
ography of,  369-374 
Immigration  Investigat- 
ing Commission,  122,  217, 

293,  303,  315 

Immigration  Protective  League, 
opposed  illiteracy  test,  268, 
270,  277 

Immigration  Restriction 
League,  tests  of  Hebrew  illit- 
eracy by,  82 ;  inquiries  by,  as 
to  the  desire  of  States  for 
immigrants,  122,  303,  316; 
advocated  illiteracy  test,  263, 
267,  269,  271 ;  canvass  of 
newspapers  by,  276,  314; 
formation  of,  263,  317 

Industrial  Commission,  217, 
276,  300 

Industrial  Removal  Office,  303, 
308 

Industry  (see  also  "  Economic 
Conditions  " ;  Economic  Ef- 
fects "),  relation  to  immigra- 


Index 


385 


tion,  6,  7,  13,  17-19,  68;  new, 
as  cause  of  immigration,  33 

Insane  (see  also  "Idiots"; 
"  Dependents  and  D  e  1  i  n  - 
quents"),  among  immigrants 
84;  segregation  of,  100;  in 
United  States,  156,  157,  166, 
168;  cost  of,  168;  excluded, 
212,  219;  inspection  of,  233; 
numbers  debarred,  239 

Inspection,  contracts  by  United 
States  with  States  for,  212; 
of  cabin  passengers,  217,  226, 
232;  medical,  222,  226,  232, 
233 ;  abroad,  242,  254 ;  ap- 
peals, 222,  296;  hampered  by 
political  influences,  223 ;  gen- 
erally, 226,  231-239;  of  aliens 
crossing  borders,  226 ;  by 
matron,  233 ;  by  boards  of 
special  inquiry,  215,  222,  223, 
229,  231,  233 ;  of  alien  sea- 
men, 238;  card  catalog  of 
aliens,  238;  supposed,  by 
steamship  lines  abroad,  240; 
certification  for  minor  de- 
fects, 86,  87,  242;  in  Canada, 
252,  253,  254 ;  at  home  of 
immigrant  proposed,  284 ; 
cooperation  of  officials  desir- 
able, 296;  more  time  desir- 
able for,  297 

Irish,  immigrants,  5,  6,  17,  29, 
36,.  37,  38,  39,  52-54.  no; 
assisted  to  emigrate,  29; 
characteristics  of,  52-54;  in 
United  States,  40,  41,  52,  91 ; 
displaced  in  industry,  53 ; 
money  brought  by,  71 ;  occu- 
pations of,  52,  76 ;  as  "  birds 
of  passage,"  78;  illiteracy 
of,  81,  83,  141,  151 ;  diseased, 
87,  158;  birthrate  among, 
113,  114;  displaced  by  Ital- 
ians, 123 ;  by  French  Cana- 
dians, 126;  displaced  Ameri- 
cans, 126;  displaced  by  Slavs 
in  mining  regions,  126;  crim- 
inality of,  151,  153;  insanity 
among,  158,  159;  pauperism 
among,  162;  dependents  and 


delinquents,  166,  167;  pro- 
portion of,  in  cities,  171 ;  re- 
ligion of,  181,  207;  naturali- 
zation of,  185,  192 ;  politics 
of,  183,  188;  desired  as  im- 
migrants, 315 

Italians,  emigration  of,  13 ; 
immigration  of,  13,  16,  25, 
28,  33,  35,  38,  39,  54-58;  in 
California,  33 ;  as  fruit- 
growers, 33,  56;  North  and 
South,  38,  54,  55;  in  United 
States,  40,  41,  91,  92,  93, 
94,  343,  344;  demand  for, 
in  South,  58,  304;  money 
brought  by,  71,  72 ;  illiteracy 
of,  72,  81,  83,  141,  144,  151; 
property  owned  by,  74 ;  oc- 
cupations of,  55,  56,  76; 
"  birds  of  passage,"  among 
13,  78;  diseased  and  defec- 
tive, 85,  159,  244 ;  displace- 
ment of  Irish  by,  123 ;  work- 
ing power  of,  129;  padrone 
system  among,  132,  133 ; 
ability  to  speak  English, 
145;  criminality  of,  151; 
lynching  of,  155 ;  Mafia 
among,  155 ;  pauperism 
.  among,  163,  165 ;  societies 
for  the  protection  of,  163, 
164,  307;  dependents  and  de- 
linquents among,  166,  167; 
proportion  of,  in  cities,  171 ; 
religion  of,  181 ;  naturaliza- 
tion of,  185,  192,  193,  194; 
voting  by,  183,  187;  aliens 
among,  192 ;  effect  of  ex- 
pected passage  of  illiter- 
acy test  on,  275 ;  proposed 
distribution  of,  302,  304; 
desired  as  immigrants, 
315 


Japanese,  characteristics  of,  58- 
60 ;  as  contract  laborers,  59 ; 
numbers  in  United  States, 
58;  in  agriculture,  59;  agita- 
tion for  exclusion  of,  60; 
money  shown  by,  immi- 


Index 


grants,   71,  258;   occupations 
of,   58,   76;    illiteracy   of,   81 
Jefferson,    Thomas,    views    of, 
206 


Knights    of    Labor,    125,    212, 

276,  312 
Know-Nothing     party,     origin 

and    strength   of,    207-209 
Kuczynski,  R.  R.,  113 


Labor,  immigration  of  un- 
skilled, 33,  34,  74-77,  123, 
125,  136,  316;  skilled,  will  not 
compete  with  unskilled,  34, 
123;  goes  to  other  countries, 
34;  demand  for,  in  South 
and  West,  58,  122;  unem- 
ployed, 68,  124,  135-138;  im- 
migration and  demand  for, 
17,  121-123 ;  employers'  desire 
for  cheap,  122 ;  natives  and 
manual,  122;  displacement  of 
earlier  by  later,  123,  126; 
wages  and  standard  of  liv- 
ing, 123-131,  136;  effect  of 
machinery  on,  33,  129,  130, 
301,  302 ;  padrone  system  of, 
I3I-I33;  sweat  shop  system 
of,  133-135 ;  proposed  bureau 
of,  301 

Labor  unions,  demand  restric- 
tion, 68,  125,  312,  313;  for- 
eign-born joining,  313 

Land,  exhaustion  of  public,  in 
United  States,  137 

Landing  certificates,  proposed, 
298 

Legislation  (see  also  "Stat- 
utes"), history  of,  201- 
238;  effect  of  present  laws, 
239-255;  proposed,  256-208; 
other  remedies  than,  299- 
308;  considerations  as  to 
further,  309-323 ;  favoring 
immigrants,  201-204;  Carri- 
age of  Passengers  Acts,  201 ; 
Act  of  1864,  202 ;  State  legis- 
lation favoring  immigrants, 


203,  209;  State  restrictive, 
203-206;  federal  restrictive, 
206-231;  as  to  coolies,  210; 
Contract  Labor  Laws,  212- 
213;  Act  of  1882,  212,  Act  of 
1891,  214;  Act  of  1893,  215; 
Act  of  1894,  215 ;  Act  of  1903, 
216-231;  scope,  217;  head- 
tax,  218;  excluded  classes, 
219 ;  offenses  against,  220 ;  re- 
jection of  diseased,  222; 
manifests,  223 ;  examination 
of  immigrants,  226;  deten- 
tion and  return  of  aliens, 
226;  bonds  and  guaranties, 
230;  inspection  and  registra- 
tion of  immigrants,  231-239; 
applies  to  insular  posses- 
sions, 218;  as  to  Philippines, 
218 ;  fear  of,  as  cause  of  im- 
migration, 35 ;  head-tax  and 
money-test,  256-258 ;  physi- 
cal test,  258-262;  illiteracy 
test,  262-280 ;  consular  in- 
spection, 280-288 ;  miscella- 
neous proposals  for,  288- 
295 ;  administrative  amend- 
ments proposed,  295-298 

Lithuanians,  as  immigrants, 
62-65 ;  money  brought  by, 
71,  72;  illiteracy  of,  63,  72, 
81 ;  occupations  of,  76 ;  dis- 
eased and  defective,  85 

Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  generally, 
37,  259;  advocated  illiteracy 
test,  263,  264,  267,  271 ;  and 
consular  inspection,  287 

Lombroso,  Cesare,  151 


Machinery,  effect  upon  labor, 
33,.  129,  301,  302 

Madison,  James,  views  of, 
206 

Mafia,  155 

Magyars,  characteristics  of,  60, 
6l ;  money  brought  by,  71 ; 
occupations  of,  61,  76;  illit- 
eracy of,  81,  83;  diseased  and 
defective,  85-87 

Manifests,    required    by    Pas- 


Index 


387 


senger  Acts,  201,  202 ;  under 
Act  of  1893,  215 ;  liability  for 
not  delivering,  222,  225; 
under  Act  of  1903,  223 ;  use 
of,  on  inspection,  223,  233 ; 
should  show  money  brought, 
298 

Mann,    Horace,    167 
Marriage,  rates  of,   in  Massa- 
chusetts, 113 
Massachusets    Commission    on 

the   Unemployed,    124 
Mather,  Cotton,  123 
"  May  laws,"  8,  16,  20-22 
Mayo-Smith,   Richmond,  320 
McCall,    Samuel   W.,   264,   267 
Mental  test,  proposed,  294 
Mexico,     citizens     of,     exempt 
from    head-tax,    218;    immi- 
gration   through,    generally, 
251-255;  undesirable,  59,  219, 
253 ;    numbers    of    debarred, 
253 ;  rules  for  inspection  of, 
226 ;  deported  to  Europe  and 
Asia,    230,    254;    application 
of  illiteracy  test  to  citizens 
of,  280 
Michaud,    Gustave,     103,     105, 

106 
Middle    States,    settlement    of, 

20 

Migration,  causes  of,  14 
Mine-owners,  desire  cheap  la- 
bor, 122 

Mining  regions,  emigration  of 
laborers  in,  13 ;  displacement 
of  labor  in,  123,  126;  stand- 
ard of  living  in,  127,  128; 
wages  in,  127;  crime  in,  152; 
pauperism  in,  164;  labor  tax 
in,  193 

Money,  exports  of,  18,  32,  72, 
73 ;  brought  by  various  races, 
41-66,  70-73,  relation  of,  to 
illiteracy,  72;  to  distribution, 
72;  value  of  immigrant,  67- 
75 ;  sent  ahead  by  immi- 
grants, 69;  saved  by  immi- 
grants, 74;  no  amount  of, 
required  for  admission,  224; 
test  proposed,  257,  258 ;  man- 


ifests should  show,  brought, 
298 

Montana,  Japanese  in,  58 

Montenegrins,  as  immigrants, 
63 ;  illiteracy  of,  81 

Moravians,  as  immigrants,  63; 
illiteracy  of,  63,  81,  82;  mon- 
ey brought  by,  71 

Mormons,   35 


National  Immigration  Confer- 
ence, resolutions  adopted  by, 
348-350 

Naturalization  (see  also  "  Po- 
litical Effects  " ; "  Suffrage  ") , 
anarchists  not  to  enjoy,  155, 
190;  perjury  in  connection 
with,  180;  among  various 
races,  184,  192;  voting  power 
of  foreign-born,  185-189;  re- 
quirements for,  189-191 ; 
effect  of,  upon  wife  and 
children,  190;  diversity  of 
practice  as  to,  190,  193,  194; 
abuses  connected  with,  191 ; 
"  birds  of  passage "  and, 
185,  192,  195 ;  inducements 
to,  192,  193;  and  employment, 
193 ;  use  of  certificates  of, 
abroad,  192,  195;  fraudu- 
lent, 193,  194,  195,.  197,  241 ; 
certificates  and  inspection, 
195 ;  Koszta  case,  196 ;  rela- 
tion of,  to  immigration  prob- 
lem, 198;  and  assimilation, 
198;  landing  certificates  and, 
298 

Natural  selection,  belief  in, 
318;  not  sufficient,  102,  322 

Negroes,  labor  of,  unsatisfac- 
tory, 58;  birthrate  of,  in 
Boston,  116;  criminality  of, 
149;  problem  of,  176 

Newfoundland,  citizens  of,  ex- 
empt from  head-tax,  218; 
application  of  illiteracy  test 
to  citizens  of,  280 

Newspapers,  in  foreign  lan- 
guages in  United  States,  145, 
315;  endorse  illiteracy  test, 


388 


Index 


276;  attitude  of,  toward  re- 
^striction,  309,  314,  315,  317 

North  America,  emigration 
from,  5 ;  immigration  from 
British,  39;  natives  of,  in 
United  States,  40 

Norton,  Eliot,  views  of,  101, 
301 

Norwegians  (see  also  "  Scan- 
dinavians"), as  immigrants, 
37t  39.  60-62 ;  occupations  of, 
61,  77;  proportion  of,  in 
cities,  171 ;  naturalization  of, 
185 


Occupations,  of  various  races, 
41-66,  74-77;  immigrants 
with  no,  75 ;  unskilled,  75 

Oregon,  Japanese  in,  58 


Padrone,  as  promoter  of  immi- 
gration, 19,  55;  among 
Greeks,  48,  132,  133;  wages 
paid  by,  68;  system  of  labor, 
I3I-I33 ;  among  Italians, 
132;  among  Hebrews,  132; 
among  Slavs,  132;  bankers 
act  as,  132;  as  steamship 
agents,  132 

Panics,  relation  of,  to  immi- 
gration, 7,  17-19 

Pauperism  (see  also  "De- 
pendents and  Delinquents"), 
among  Italians,  57,  163; 
among  Syrians,  65,  162; 
as  an  effect  of  immigration, 
160-166,  208;  among  He- 
brews, 162,  163;  among 
Slavs,  164;  among  native- 
born,  164;  in  mining  regions, 
164;  continuance  of,  164; 
paupers  excluded,  219,  239 

Perjury,  in  connection  with 
naturalization,  180 ;  in  con- 
nection with  inspection,  222 ; 
in  connection  with  manifests, 
225 

Philippine  Islands,  immigra- 
tion laws  apply  to,  218 


Physical  test  (see  also  "Dis- 
ease"; "Poor  physique"), 
proposed,  258-262 

Pilgrims   and   Puritans,    17,  20 

Poles,  as  immigrants,  8,  13, 
20-22,  38,  39,  62-65;  charac- 
teristics of,  62-65 ;  money 
brought  by,  71,  72;  illiteracy 
of,  63,  72,  81,  83,  151;  occu- 
pations of,  63,  76;  as  "birds 
of  passage,"  13;  in  United 
States,  91,  92,  93,  343; 
ability  of,  to  speak  English, 
145;  criminality  of,  151;  So- 
cialism among,  156;  propor- 
tion of,  in  cities,  171 ;  voting 
power  of,  187;  aliens  among, 
192 

Political  effects  (see  also  "Nat- 
uralization " ;  "  Suffrage  "), 
Irish  and  German  vote,  48; 
political  tendencies,  183-189; 
naturalization,  189-198  ; 
change  in  political  ideals, 
188 

Political  oppression,  8,  16,  20- 
22 

Polygamists,  excluded,  214,  219 

Poor  physique  (see  also  "Dis- 
ease"; "Physical  test"), 
among  Hebrews,  50,  244; 
Austro-Hungarians,  244  ; 
Syrians,  66;  Italians,  244; 
predisposes  to  tuberculosis, 
85;  physical  defects,  86,  87, 
242,  261,  262;  immigrants 
with,  generally  admitted,  87; 
relation  of,  to  illiteracy,  87; 
increasing,  87;  dangerous  to 
public  health,  159;  to  be 
considered  important  by  in- 
spectors, 223,  243;  examin- 
ation for,  233,  242;  definition 
of,  243;  increasing,  2-43 

Population  (see  also  "  Birth- 
rate"), and  immigration,  10; 
density  of,  in  United  States, 
119;  natural  increase  of,  136 

Porto  Rico,  immigration  laws 
apply  to,  218 

Portuguese,  money  brought  by, 


Index 


389 


71,  72;  illiteracy  of,  72,  81, 
141 ;  naturalization  of,  185 

"  Prepaids "  (see  "Assisted 
Immigration") 

Probation,  landing  of  aliens 
upon,  228,  295 

Procurers,  excluded,  219;  lia- 
bility of,  220;  numbers  de- 
barred, 240 

Prosperity,  as  cause  of  immi- 
gration, 17-19 

Prostitutes,  excluded,  211,  219; 
numbers  debarred,  240 

Public  charges,  persons  likely 
to  become,  among  Greeks, 
48;  excluded  212,  219,  223; 
admitted  on  oral  promises, 
223,  231;  pregnant  women 
as.  233;  numbers  of,  de- 
barred, 239,  240;  physical 
defects  making,  242;  admit- 
ting, upon  bonds,  215,  230, 
231,  297;  deportation  of,  214, 
228 

Public  opinion,  as  to  further 
restriction,  309-320 


Quakers,  20 
Quarantine,  8,  17 


Race,  Teutonic,  5,  39,  103,  112, 
156;  Keltic,  5,  39,  103,  112; 
Iberic,  39,  103,  112,  184; 
Slavic,  39,  103,  112,  156,  184; 
Mongolian,  39,  103;  illiter- 
acy by,  81 ;  stock,  importance 
of,  99-101 ;  changes  in,  102- 
120;  Baltic,  103-106;  Alpine, 
103-106;  Mediterranean,  103- 
106;  theory  of,  decay,  117; 
Semitic,  156;  anarchy  and, 
156;  and  congestion  in  cities, 
I7i,  343-346;  Latin,  184;  as 
affecting  naturalization,  184; 
in  voting,  186;  proposed  ex- 
clusion by,  288 ;  tables  of 
nationalities,  342,  343 

Race-suicide  (see  "Birth- 
rate ") 


Racial  conditions,  changes  in, 
36-41 ;  immigration  from 
Northwestern  Europe,  38; 
immigration  from  South- 
eastern Europe,  38;  racial 
divisions  in  1004,  39 ;  foreign- 
born  in  United  States,  40; 
characteristics  of  races,  41- 
66 

Racial  effects,  importance  of 
race  stock,  09-101 ;  result  of 
racial  changes,  102-120;  in- 
fluence of  heredity,  99;  on 
national  character,  99-102; 
on  future  generations,  102; 
result  of  racial  changes,  102- 
120;  prevention  of  immigra- 
tion, 106,  107;  reduction  of 
birth-rates,  107-120;  on  politi- 
cal institutions,  188 

Railroads,  rates  for  immi- 
grants, 24;  desire  cheap  la- 
bor, 122,  271;  opposed  to  il- 
literacy test,  271 ;  combina- 
tion of,  and  steamships  as 
to  rates,  271 ;  influence  of,  on 
Canadian  legislation,  254 ; 
and  illiteracy  test,  271,  280; 
advocate  distribution  of  im- 
migrants, 304 

Religion,  as  bar  to  assimila- 
tion, 52,  181 ;  of  Slavic  immi- 
grants, 63;  of  immigrants 
generally,  181 ;  Know-Noth- 
ing movement,  206-209;  in- 
fluence of,  on  attitude  toward 
restriction,  319 

Religious  persecution,  8,  16,  20- 

22 

Republicans,  views  of,  206,  207, 
276,  310 

Res  adjudicata,  decision  of 
board  of  special  inquiry  is, 
when,  229,  250 

Restriction  o  f  immigration, 
demanded  by  labor  unions, 
68,  125,  312,  313;  petitions 
for,  125,  275,  311;  Carriage 
of  Passenger  Acts,  201 ;  State 
legislation  for,  203 ;  federal 
legislation  for,  206-231 ;  ef- 


390 


Index 


feet  of  present  laws,  239-255 ; 
need  for  further,  239-255; 
proposed  total  suspension,  85, 
288;  proposed  exclusion  by 
race,  288;  by  limitation  of 
numbers,  289;  by  increase 
of  air-space,  290;  by  exclu- 
sion of  socialists,  291 ;  by 
head-tax  or  money  test,  256- 
258;  by  physical  test,  258- 
262;  by  consular  inspection, 
280-288;  by  illiteracy  test, 
262-280;  by  exclusion  of 
those  not  to  become  citizens, 
291 ;  by  exclusion  of  im- 
moral persons,  292;  by  ex- 
clusion of  "  birds  of  pass- 
age," 293 ;  by  exclusion  of 
single  persons,  293;  by  ex- 
clusion of  the  aged,  294;  by 
mental  test,  294;  by  extend- 
ing period  of  deportation, 
294 ;  by  administrative 
amendments,  295-298;  public 
sentiment  as  to,  309-320;  en- 
dorsements of,  309-317;  op- 
position to,  317-320;  ethics 
of,  320-323 

Roberts,   Peter,   112,   128 

Rood,    Henry   E.,    127 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  views  of, 
278,  306,  311 

Roumanians,  as  immigrants, 
21 ;  illiteracy  of,  81,  141 

Russians  (see  also  "  He- 
brews"), as  immigrants,  8, 
20-22,  38,  39,  63 ;  "  May 
Laws,"  8,  16,  20-22;  money 
brought  by,  71 ;  occupations 
of,  76;  illiteracy  of,  81,  141, 
151;  in  United  States,  91, 
92,  94,  95,  343,  345;  ability 
of,  to  speak  English,  145; 
criminality  of,  151,  152;  in- 
sanity among,  158,  159;  pro- 
portion of,  in  cities,  171 

Russniaks  (see  "  Ruthenians  ") 

Ruthenians,  money  brought  by, 
71,  72;  as  immigrants,  63; 
illiteracy  of,  63,  72,  8r,  83 

Sailors   (see  "Seamen") 


Sargent,  Frank  P.,  views  of, 
276,  300,  301 

Savings,    of    immigrants,    74 

Scandinavians,  as  immigrants, 
37,  38,  61,  62;  in  United 
States,  40,  41,  91 ;  character- 
istics of,  61,  62;  money 
brought  by,  71 ;  illiteracy  of, 
81,  83,  151;  diseased,  87; 
criminality  of,  151 ;  insan- 
ity among,  157;  religion  of, 
181 ;  naturalization  of,  184, 
185 ;  desired  as  immigrants, 
315,  3i6 

Schwab,  Gustav  H.,  295 

Scotch,  money  shown  by,  im- 
migrants, 71 ;  occupations  of, 
76;  illiteracy  of,  81,  83,  141, 
151 ;  criminality  of,  151 ; 
disease  among,  158;  propor- 
tion of,  in  cities,  171 ;  desired 
as  immigrants,  315 

Seamen,  alien,  inspected  when, 
238;  Chinese,  238 

Servians,  as  immigrants,  63; 
illiteracy  of,  81,  141 

Senner,  Joseph  H.,  opposed  to 
illiteracy  test,  268,  270,  277; 
formerly  favored  test,  277 

Sex,  of  Irish,  52,  76,  192;  of 
Italians,  55,  56,  76;  of  Scan- 
dinavians, 76;  of  Germans, 
76,  192;  relation  of  illiteracy 
and,  82 

Shaler,  Nathaniel   S.,   175,   176 

Slavonians  (see  "  Sloveni- 
ans ") 

Slavs,  in  United  States,  40,  41 ; 
as  immigrants,  62-65 ;  relig- 
ion of,  63;  property  owned 
by,  74;  diseased,  85,  87;  in 
hospital,  85,  87;  suffering 
with  serious  defects,  85 ; 
with  minor  defects,  85 ;  dis- 
place British  in  mining  re- 
gions, 123,  126;  padrone  sys- 
tem among,  132;  criminality 
of,  152;  pauperism  among, 
164;  dependents  and  delin- 
quents among,  166;  natural- 
ization of,  184 


Index 


Slovaks,  as  immigrants,  13,  63; 
money  brought  by,  71,  72; 
illiteracy  of,  72,  81,  83;  oc- 
cupations of,  63 ;  as  "  birds 
of  passage,"  13;  political 
ignorance  of,  187 

Slovenians,  as  immigrants,  62- 
65 ;  money  brought  by,  71 ; 
occupations  of,  76;  illiteracy 
of,  81,  82 

Slums,  immigrants  in  city,  153, 
171,  172;  races  in,  172,  346; 
proposed  scattering  of,  302- 
305,  3i6 

Smallpox     (see    "Disease") 

Smuggling,  of  immigrants 
across  borders,  32,  59,  252- 
255 ;  penalty  for,  221 

"  Social  Capillarity,"  law  of, 
118 

Social  conditions  of  immigra- 
tion, 80-95;  illiteracy,  80-83; 
crime,  insanity  and  disease, 
83-87 ;  distribution,  88-95 

Social  effects  of  immigration, 
illiteracy,  139-146;  crime,  146- 
156;  insanity  and  disease, 
156-160;  pauperism,  160-165; 
burden  of  dependents  and 
delinquents,  166-169;  con- 
gestion in  cities,  169-172;  as- 
similation, 172-182 

Socialists,  proposed  exclusion 
of,  291 

Societies,  among  foreign-born, 
269,  307-309,  3i8,  319 

South  Africa,  emigration  to, 
34,  107 

South  America,  emigration 
from,  5 ;  emigration  to,  35, 
51,  107;  natives  of,  in  United 
States,  40;  Germans  in,  35, 
107 

Southern  States,  demand  for 
labor  in,  58,  122,  304,  305; 
immigration  destined  to,  90, 
137;  birthrate  in,  117 

Spanish,  immigrants,  5;  illiter- 
acy of,  81,  141 

Special  inquiry,  boards  of,  215, 
235;  duties  .as  to  diseased 


aliens,  222,  233 ;  decision  of, 
when  res  adjudicata,  229,250; 
appeals  from,  222,  229,  236; 
evidence  before,  223,  231; 
inspection  by,  233,  234,  236 

Spencer,  Herbert,  116 

Speranza,  Gino  C.,  198 

Standard  of  living,  among 
Italians,  57,  129;  generally, 
123-131 ;  in  mining  regions, 
127,  128 ;  menaced  by  immi- 
gration, 136;  among  Chinese, 
328 

States,  immigration  legislation 
of,  as  to  employment,  192, 
193,  203 ;  restrictive  legisla- 
tion by,  203-206;  desires  of, 
as  to  immigrants,  303,  315, 
316;  attitude  of,  towards 
restriction,  122,  311 

Statistics,  imperfections  of,  77, 
143,  150;  children  of  immi- 
grants reckoned  natives,  119; 
"  aliens "  in  census,  192 ; 
tables,  immigration  by  dec- 
ades, 9,  339 ;  annual  immi- 
gration, 339-341 ;  nationali- 
ties, 39,  342,  343;  distribu- 
tion, 89-94,  170.  171,  343-345 ; 
racial  composition  of  city 
slums,  346;  birth-rates,  HI, 
347 ;  immigration  compared 
with  population,  10;  steerage 
rates,  24;  immigration  by 
race,  39;  foreign-born  and 
their  increase,  40;  Slavic 
races,  63 ;  illiteracy,  63,  72, 
80,  81,  82,  141 ;  money  shown 
71,  72;  immigrants  with  no 
occupation,  75 ;  unskilled,  75 ; 
"birds  of  passage,"  77;  dis- 
eased and  defective,  85-87, 
158;  crime,  147,  148,  151; 
pauperism,  161 ;  cost  of  de- 
pendents, 167 

Statutes  (see  also  "Legisla- 
tion"), Carriage  of  Passen- 
gers, 1819,  c.  46,  201 ;  March 
3,  1855,  c.  213,  201;  Aug.  2, 
1882,  c.  374,  201 ;  coolie  traf- 
fic, Feb.  19,  1862,  210;  Feb. 


392 


Index 


9,  1869,  210;  March  3,  1875, 
21 1 ;  encouraging  immigra- 
tion, July  4,  1864,  c.  246, 
202,  210;  immigration,  Aug. 
3,  1882,  8,  17,  30,  212;  Feb. 
26,  1885,  17,  212;  Oct,  18, 
1888,  17,  212;  Mar.  3,  1891, 
30,  214-215;  Mar.  3,  1893, 
215;  Aug.  18,  1894,  215; 
Mar.  3,  1903,  216-231 ;  March 
3,  1903,  sec.  I,  218;  sec.  2, 
219;  sec.  3,  220;  sec.  4,  221, 
227;  sec.  5,  221,  227,  250; 
sec.  6,  203 ;  sec.  7,  221 ;  sec. 
8,  221 ;  sec.  9,  26,  157,  221, 
225,  241;  sec.  10,  222,  262; 
sec.  ii,  223;  sec.  12,  224; 
sec.  13,  225 ;  sec.  14,  225 ; 
sec.  15,  222,  225 ;  sec.  16,  227 ; 
sec.  17,  227 ;  sec.  18,  222,  227 ; 
sec.  19,  222,  223,  227;  sec.  20, 
228;  sec.  21,  222,  229,  230, 

239,  25°;   sec-   22,  232.  25°; 
sec.  24,  222,  234;  sec.  25,  222, 
235,  250;  sec.  26,  230;  sec.  32, 
227;    sec.    33,    218;    sec.    35, 
230;    sec.    36,    220;    sec.    37, 
223;    sec.    38,    222;    sec.    39, 
189,  190;  March  18,  1904,  c. 
716,    218;    March    22,    1904, 
218;  Feb.  6,  1905,  c.  453,  sec. 
6,  218;   naturalization,  April 
14,    1802,    189 

Steamship  lines,  agents  of,  23, 

26,  27,  32,  33,  132,  240 ;  capital 
invested     in,     23;       steerage 
rates,    12,    23-25 ;    fixing    of 
rates  by,  25 ;    solicitation  by 
agents    of,    23,    25-27,    32-33, 

240,  245-248;    charge   return 
passage  when,  26,  240;  bring 
diseased     persons,     26,     157, 
221,  225,  241 ;  sub-agents  of, 

27,  240 ;   "  coaching "  of  im- 
migrants by,  32,  33,  247,  248; 
from   Mediterranean,  23,  25, 
55,   78,   82;    American    Line, 
12;  padroni  as  ticket  sellers, 
132;  air-space  on  ships,  201, 
290 ;    advertisements    limited, 
214,    221 ;    to    display    laws, 


215;  head-tax  paid  by,  218; 
pay  cost  of  feeding  detained 
immigrants,  237;  supposed  to 
enforce  existing  laws,  240; 
connive  at  evasions  of  law, 
241 ;  liability  for  smuggling 
aliens,  221 ;  escapes,  221,  222, 
227 ;  bringing  diseased  per- 
sons, 221,  225,  241,  349;  neg- 
lecting to  return  debarred 
and  deported,  222;  entry  of 
anarchists,  222;  not  delivering 
manifests,  222,  225  ;  improper 
advertising,  221 ;  opposition 
to  illiteracy  test  by,  265,  269, 
271 ;  combination  of,  and  rail- 
roads as  to  rates,  271 ;  pro- 
posed limitation  of  ticket  sell- 
ing, 298;  artificial  selection 
by,  26,  321 ;  advocate  distri- 
bution of  immigrants,  304; 
to  Southern  States,  305 

Steerage  rates,  12,  23-25 ;  fix- 
ing of,  by  lines,  25 ;  advertise- 
ment of,  214;  head-tax  in- 
cluded in,  218 

Stone,  William  A.,  advocated 
consular  inspection.  281 

Suffrage  (see  also  "Naturali- 
zation"; "  Political  effects"), 
males  of  voting  age  in  slums, 
172 ;  aliens  entitled  to,  in 
some  States,  185,  186,  191 ; 
voting  power  of  foreign-born, 
185-189;  racial  units  of,  186, 
187 

Surgeons  of  Marine  Hospital 
Service,  duties  as  to  diseased 
aliens,  222;  inspection  by, 
222,  226,  232,  233;  abroad, 
242,  254;  to  certify  minor 
defects,  242 

"  Survival   of  the   fittest,"   322 

Suspension,  total,  of  immigra- 
tion proposed,  85,  288 

Sweat-shops,  Hebrews  in,  50; 
wages  paid  in,  68;  generally, 

133-135 

Swedes  (see  also  Scandi- 
navians"), as  immigrants,  5, 
37,  39,  60-62;  illiteracy  of, 


Index 


393 


141;  insanity  among,  158, 
159;  proportion  of,  in  cities, 
171 ;  naturalization  of,  185 

Swiss,  as  immigrants,  29;  illit- 
eracy of,  141 ;  proportion  of, 
in  cities,  171 ;  desired  as  im- 
migrants, 315 

Syrians,  as  immigrants,  65; 
money  brought  by,  71,  72> 
illiteracy  of,  72,  81,  83;  dis- 
eased and  defective,  85; 
earlier  immigrants  displaced 
by,  126;  pauperism  among, 
162 ;  use  of  naturalization  by, 
196,  197;  not  fitted  for  agri- 
culture, 303 


Tables     (see   "Statistics") 
Tariff,   effect   on   immigration, 

33 

Tonnage,  immigration  regu- 
lated by,  201 

Tosti,  Gustavo,  views  on  dis- 
tribution, 302 

Trachoma     (see    "Disease") 

Transit,  facility  of,  effect,  12, 
22-25 

True,  A.  C,  129 


Underwood,  Oscar  W.,  270 
Unemployment,     of     labor     in 
United    States,    68;    duetto 
congestion,  68;   immigration 


and,  124,  135 ;  Massachusetts 
Commission  on,  124;  gener- 
ally, 135-138 


Wages,  paid  by  padroni,  68 ;  in 
sweatshops,  68;  newer  im- 
migrants work  for  lower, 
123-131 ;  effect  of  immigra- 
tion upon,  123-131 ;  in  min- 
ing regions,  127;  of  agricul- 
tural laborers,  128 

Walker,  Gen.  Francis  A.,  22, 
107,  112,  128,  209,  321 

War,  as  cause  of  immigration, 
33;  effect  of,  on  race  stock, 
100 

Ward,  Lester  R,  15 

Warne,  Frank  Julian,  112 

Washington,  George,  .views  of, 
206 

Washington,  State  of,  Japanese 
in,  58 

Watson,  James  E.,  125 

Welsh  (see  also  "British"), 
proportion  of,  in  cities,  171 

Western  States,  immigrants 
destined  to,  90,  137;  birth- 
rate in,  117;  demand  for 
labor  in,  122,  130 

Whigs,  views  of,  206,  207 

White,  Arnold,  51 

Willcox,  Walter  F.,  114 

Williams,  William,  228,  260 


A    NEW    EDITION    UP    TO    DATE 


WALLACE'S    RUSSIA 

By  SIR   DONALD   MACKENZIE  WALLACE 
•With  two  colored  maps,   $5.00  retail 

The  first  edition  of  Wallace's  "Russia"  was  published  in 
1877,  and  was  at  once  accepted  as  the  leading  authority  in 
English.  The  author  has  brought  the  book  up  to  date,  and 
the  present  edition,  rewritten  throughout  and  greatly  en- 
larged, may  now  be  accepted,  as  the  first  one  was,  for  the 
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CONTENTS:  Travelling-  in  Russia;  In  the  Northern  Forests; 
Voluntary  Exile;  The  Village  Priest;  A  Medical  Consultation:  A 
Peasmt  Family  of  the  Old  Type;  The  Peasantry  of  the  North ;  The 
Mir  or  Village  Community;  How  the  Commune  has  been  preserved 
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Slavophils;  St.  Petersburg  and  European  Influence  ;  The  Crimean 
War  and  its  Consequences  :  The  Serfs  :  The  Emancipation  of  the 
Serfs;  The  Landed  Proprietors  since  the  Emancipation;  The  Emanci- 
pated Peasantry;  The  Zemstvo  and  the  Local  Self-Government;  The 
New  Law  Courts;  Revolutionary  Nihilism  and  the  Reaction;  Socialist 
Propaganda  ;  Revolutionary  Agitation  and  Terrorism  ;  Industrial 
Progress  and  the  Proletariat;  The  Revolutionary  Movement  in  its 
Latest  Phase;  Territorial  Expansion  and  Foreign  Policy;  The  Present 
Situation. 

"One  of  the  stoutest  and  mnst  honest  pieces  of  work  produced  in 
our  time  ;  and  the  man  who  has  produced  it,  ...  even  if  he  never 
does  anything  more,  will  not  have  lived  in  vain." — Fortnightly 
Re-view. 

"  Excellent  and  interesting',  .  .  .  worthy  of  the  highest  praise. 
.  .  .  Not  a  piece  of  clever  book-making,  but  the  result  of  a  large 
amount  of  serious  study  and  thorough  research  .  .  .  We  commend 
his  bnok  as  a  very  valuable  account  of  a  very  interesting  people." — 
The  Nation. 


Henry      Holt     and      Company 

29  W.  230  STREET  (vn,  '05)  NEW  YORK 


America,  Asia  and  the  Pacific 

WITH   SPECIAL   REFERENCE  TO  THE    RUSSO-JAPANESE 
WAR    AND    ITS    RESULTS 

By  DR.  WOLF  VON  SCHIERBRAND, 

Author  of  '•'•Germany  of  To-day" 

13  maps,  334  pp.     $1.50,  net.     (By  mail,  $1.62.) 

This  book  treats  the  present  conflict  and  its  probable  results 
as  only  preliminary  to  larger  considerations.  It  considers 
America's  relations  to  all  the  countries  affected  by  the  Pan- 
ama Canal,  to  those  on  both  coasts  of  the  Pacific,  and  to  the 
islands,  besides  analyzing  the  strength  and  weakness  of  our 
rivals. 

Public  Opinion:—1'''  A  most  interesting  treatise  .  .  .  having  an  im- 
portant bearing  upon  our  luture  progress." 

Re•!>ie^v  of  He-views: — "  His  observations  on  the  Panama  Canal  and 
the  future  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies  are  particularly  interesting  and 
suggestive." 

Outlook:— "An  interesting  .  .  .  survey  of  a  broad  field.  .  .  .  The 
work  contains  a  great  variety  of  useful  information  concerning  the 
many  countries  under  review  .  .  .  especially  valuable  to  American 
exporters." 

Philadelphia  Ledger:— " Will  repay  perusal  by  every  thoughtful 
business  man.  .  .  .  Presenting  in  a  forceful  and  attractive  manner  the 
importance  of  the  Pacific  as  the  future  field  for  the  world's  political 
and  commercial  activity." 


Russian   Politics 

By  HERBERT  M.  THOMPSON.     With  maps,  12010,  $2.00. 

An  account  of  the  relations  of  Russian  geography,  history, 
and  politics,  and  of  the  bearings  of  the  last  on  questions  of 
world-wide  interest. 

Outlonk : — "The  result  of  careful  study,  compactly,  clearly,  and 
effectively  presented.  .  .  .  The  author's  aim  is  to  stir  the  friends  of 
freedom  throughout  the  world  to  a  deeper  interest  in  the  cause  of 
Russian  liberty.  His  work  is  vivified  by  the  fact  that  his  heart  is  in 
it.  The  chapters  upon  the  methods  by  which  the  Russian  serfs  were 
emancipated,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  have  been  almost  re- 
enslaved  bv  debt  and  taxation,  are  particularly  worthy  of  the  ex- 
amination of  students  of  social  politics. 

Henry     Holt     and     Company 

23  W.  23D  STREET  (VH,  '05)  NEW  YORK 


AS'  THE  OPEN    ROAD 


A  little  oook  for  wayfarers,  bicycle-wise  and  otherwise.  Compiled  by  E.  V. 
LUCAE.  U'ith  illustrated  cover-linings.  Green  ana  yold  flexible  covers. 
i2ino.  $i  50,  retail. 

Some  12=  poems  (.mostly  complete)  and  25  prose  passages,  representing  over 
60  authors,  including  hitzgerald,  Shelley,  Shakespeare,  Kenneth  Grahame, 
Stevenson,  Whitman,  Bliss  Carman,  Browning,  William  \V,,tson,  Alice 
Mcynel,  Keats,  Wordsworth,  Matthew  Arnold,  Tennyson,  William  Morris, 
Maurice  Hewlett,  Isaak  Walton,  William  Barnes,  Herrick,  Gervase  Markham, 
Dobson.  Lamb,  Milton,  Whittier,  etc. 

Critic  :  "  The  selections  tell  of  farewells  to  winter  and  the  town,  of  spring 
and  the  beauty  of  the  earth,  of  lovers,  of  sun  and  cloud  and  the  windy  hills, 
of  birds,  blossoms,  and  trees  —  in  fact  of  everything  that  makes  work  well-nigh 
impossible  when  the  world  of  nature  begins  to  wake  from  iis  long  sleep.'' 

Dial:  "A  very  charming  book  from  cover  to  cover.  .  .  .  some  things  are 
"acking.  but  all  that  there  is  is  good." 

New  York  Tribune  :  "  It  has  been  made  with  good  taste,  and  is  altogether 
a  capital  publication." 

London  Times:  "  The  only  thing  a  poetry-loving  cyclist  could  allege  against 
Uie  book  is  that  its  fascinations  would  make  him  rest  too  long.'1 

LUCAS'  A  BOOK  OF  VERSES  FOR  CHILDREN 

Over  200  poems,  representing  some  80  authors.  With  title-page  and  cover- 
lining  pictures  in  color,  and  cover  in  colors  and  gilt. 

Revised  Edition,     izmo.     $2.00,  retail. 

Critic  :  "  We  know  of  no  other  anthology  for  children  so  complete  and  well 
arranged." 

P.et  Lore  :  "  A  child  could  scarcely  get  a  choicer  range  of  verse  to  roll  over 
in  his  mind,  or  be  coaxed  to  it  by  a  prettier  volume.  ...  A  book  to  take  note 
of  against  Christmas  and  all  the  birthday  gift  times  of  the  whole  year  round." 

BEERS'    ENGLISH   ROMANTICISM  -xvm.  CENTURY 

Gilt  top      455  pp.     12010.     $2  oo,  retail. 

New  Ynrk  Commeriial  Advertiser  :  "The  individuality  of  his  style,  its 
humor,  its  color*  its  delicacy.  .  .  .  will  do  quite  as  much  to  continue  its 
autlior's  reputation  as  Ins  scholarship.  .  .  .  The  work  of  a  man  who  has 
studied  hard,  hut  who  has  also  lived." 

Outlook  :  "  One  of  the  most  important  contributions  yet  made  to  literary 
history  by  an  American  scholar." 

New  }  ork  Tribune  :  "  No  less  instructive  than  readable." 

Nation  :  ''  Always  interesting.  .  .  .  On  the  whole  may  be  commended  as  an 
excellent  popular  treatment  of  the  special  subject  of  the  literary  revival  of 
meiliaevalism  in  the  eighteenth  century  in  England." 

Literature  :  "  His  analyses  are  clear  and  profound.  ...  A  notable  example 
of  the  best  type  of  unpedantic  literary  scholarship." 

HANCOCK'S  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 
AND  THE  ENGLISH  POETS 

With  an  introduction,  on  Historical  Criticism  as  an  aid  to  appreciation,  by 
Professor  LEWIS  E.  GATES  of  Harvard,  xvi  -{-  197  pp.  ismo.  $1.25,  retail. 

ReTiew  nf  Reviews  :  "A  very  interesting  study.  .  .  .  He  takes  up  the 
thread  of  English  romanticism  where  Professor  Beers  drops  it." 

Outlook  :  "  It  has  a  scholar's  orderliness,  clearness  of  method,  and  contin- 
r.'ty.  .  .  .  Students  .  .  .  will  be  quick  to  recognize  the  conscientious  work- 
manship of  his  volume,  and  its  insight  into  the  spiritual  development  of  a 
•^roup  of  the  foremost  English  poets  of  the  century," 

HENRY  HOLT  &  CO..   NEW  YORK 


"One  of  tilt  most  Important  tools  on   muiic  that  tiai  tvtr  kten  fukliibed."— . 
W.  J.  HENDERSON  in  the  N.  Y.  TIMES. 

5TH  PRINTING,  with  a  chapter  by  H.  E.  KREHBIEL, 
covering  Richard  Strauss,  Cornelius,  Goldmark,  Kienzl,  Hum- 
perdinck,  Smetana,  Dvorak,  Charpentier,  Elgar,  etc. 

LAVIGNAC'S 

Music  and  Musicians 

Translated  by  WILLIAM  MAR  CHANT. 

With    additional   chapters    by   HENRY  E.    KREHBIEL  on 
Music  IN  AMERICA  and  THE  PRESENT  STATE  or  THE  ART  OF  Music. 

With  94  Illustrations  and  510  examples  in  Musical  Notation.  518  pp.,  izmo, 
$1.75  net.  By  mail,  31.91. 

l|  A  brilliant,  sympathetic  and  authoritative  work  cover- 
ing musical  sound,  the  voice,  musical  instruments,  con- 
struction aesthetics  and  the  history  of  music.  A  veritable 
musical  cyclopedia,  with  some  thousand  topics  in  the  index. 

W.  F.  APTHORP  in  the  TRANSCRIPT  : — 

Admirably  written  in  its  way,  capitally  indexed,  and  of  genuine  value 
as  a  handy  book  of  reference.  It  contains  an  immense  amount  of 
condensed  information  on  almost  every  point  connected  with  the  art 
which  it  were  well  for  the  intelligent  music-lover  to  know.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Marchant  has  done  his  hard  task  of  translating  exceedingly  well.  .  .  . 
Well  worth  buying  and  owning  by  all  who  are  interested  in  musical 
knowledge. 

W.  J.  HENDERSON  in  the  N.  Y.  TIMES  :— 

A  truly  wonderful  production  ;  .  .  .  a  long  and  exhaustive  account 
of  the  manner  of  using  the  instruments  of  the  orchestra,  with  some 
highly  instructive  remarks  on  coloring.  .  .  .  Harmony  he  treats 
not  only  very  fully,  but  also  in  a  new  and  intensely  interesting  way. 
.  .  .  Counterpoint  is  discussed  with  great  thoroughness.  ...  It 
seems  to  have  been  his  idea  when  he  began  to  let  no  interesting  topic 
escape.  .  .  .  The  wonder  is  that  the  author  has  succeeded  in 
making  those  parts  of  the  book  which  ought  naturally  to  be  dry  so  read- 
able. ...  A  style  which  can  be  fairly  described  as  fascinating. 
...  It  will  serve  as  a  general  reference  book  for  either  the  musician 
or  the  music-lover.  It  will  save  money  in  the  purchase  of  a  library  by 
filling  the  places  of  several  smaller  books.  .  .  .  A  complete  directory 
of  musical  literature.  .  .  .  One  of  the  most  important  books  on 
music  that  have  ever  been  published. 

HENRY   HOLT   &    COMPANY, 

NEW  rORK.  Cvill/oj).  CHICAGO. 


llale's   Dramatists  of  To-day 

Rostand,  Hauptmann,  Sudermann, 
Pinero,  Shaw,  Phillips,  Maeterlinck 

By  PROF.  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE,  JR.,  of  Union 
College.     With  gilt  top,  §1.50  net.     (By  mail,  $1.60.) 

An  informal  discussion  of  their  principal  plays  and  of 
the  performances  of  some  of  them.  A  few  of  those  con- 
sidered are  Man  and  Superman,  Candida,  Cyrano 
de  Bergerac,  L'Aiglon,  The  Sunken  Bell,  Magda, 
Ulysses,  Letty,  Iris,  and  Pelleas  and  Melisande.  The 
volume  opens  with  a  paper  "  On  Standards  of  Criti- 
cism," and  concludes  with  "  Our  Idea  of  Tragedy,"  and 
an  appendix  of  all  the  plays  of  each  author,  with  dates 
of  their  first  performance  or  publication. 

Bookman:  "He  writes  in  a  pleasant,  free-and-easy  way.  .  .  .  He 
accepts  things  chiefly  at  their  face  value,  but  he  describes  them  so  accu- 
rately and  agreeably  that  he  recalls  vividly  to  mind  the  plays  we  have  seen 
and  the  pleasure  we  have  found  in  them." 

New  York  Evening  Post :  "  It  is  not  often  nowadays  that  a  theatrical 
book  can  be  met  with  so  free  from  gush  and  mere  eulogy,  or  so  weighted 
by  common  sense  ...  an  excellent  chronological  appendix  and  full 
index  .  .  .  uncommonly  useful  for  reference." 

Dial:  "  Noteworthy  example  of  literary  criticism  in  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting of  literary  fields.  .  .  .  Provides  a  varied  menu  of  the  most 
interesting  character.  .  .  .  Prof.  Hale  establishes  confidential  relations 
with  the  reader  from  the  start.  .  .  .  Very  definite  opinions,  clearly 
reasoned  and  amply  fortified  by  example.  .  .  .  Well  worth  reading  a 
second  time." 

New  York  Tribune:  "Both  instructive  and  entertaining." 

Brooklyn  Eagle:  "A  dramatic  critic  who  is  not  just  'busting*  himself 
with  Titanic  intellectualities,  but  who  is  a  readable  dramatic  critic.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Hale  is  a  modest  and  sensible,  as  well  as  an  acute  and  sound  critic.  .  .  . 
Most  people  will  be  surprised  and  delighted  with  Mr.  Hale's  simplicity, 
perspicuity,  and  ingenuousness." 

New  York  Dramatic  Mirror:  "  Though  one  may  not  always  agree 
with  Mr.  Hale's  opinions,  yet  one  always  finds  that  he  has  something 
interesting  to  say.  and  that  he  says  it  well.  Entertaining  and  generally 
instructive  without  being  pedantic." 

The  Theatre:  "  A    pleasing    lightness   of    touch.   .   .   .  Very  readable 

book." 


Henry       Holt       and      Company 

Publishers  New  York 


Pedagogues  and   Parents 

By  ELLA  CALISTA  WILSON 
Gilt  top,  290  pp.     $1.25  net  (by  mail  $1.37) 

This  book  is  a  discussion  of  schools  and  education,  actual 
and  ideal,  and  of  some  of  the  older  educational  classics.  It  is 
lively  and  vivacious.  It  is  written  by  a  parent,  and  "  is  a 
plea  for  that  much- neglected  entity,  the  individual,  and  that 
equally  neglected  quality,  common  sense." 


N.  Y.  Times  Review:— "  A  thoughtful  and  suggestive  little  book; 
one,  morever,  so  rich  in  apt  quotation,  so  sparkling,  and  so  original 
that  the  reader  cannot  fail  to  be  fascinated." 

N.  y.  Tribune:—"  Written  in  a  lively  fashion  that  compels  attention 
to  serious  and  acknowledged  defects  in  our  school  system,  and  is 
brightened  by  many  apposite  and  humorous  anecdotes  and  instances. 
.  .  .  We  can  heartily  recommend  it  to  both  classes  "  [pedagogues  and 
parents]. 

Outlook: — "With  wit  and  due  sentiment  she  examines  the  claims 
of  educators  and  the  results  of  methods.  ...  A  thorough  reading  of 
this  book  will  bring  pedagogue  and  parent  nearer  together." 

Boston  Transcript: — "The  author  has  succeeded  in  making  an 
interesting  book  upon  a  subject  that  is  too  often  rendered  dry  as  a  New 
Mexican  mesa.'' 

Springfield  Republican: — "Whimsical  and  entertaining.  .  .  .  The 
author  does  not  propose  to  settle  the  many  problems  she  raises.  She 
merely  inquires,  as  a  parent,  whether  our  schools  are  really  so  pf rfect 
as  they  seem,  and  whether  they  are  meeting  properly  the  needs  of  the 
individual  child.'1 

New  York  School  Journal: — "Full  of  very  bright  comments  and 
criticism.  .  .  .  No  teacher  but  will  be  aided  by  reading  the  conclusions 
and  criticisms  of  the  parent." 


Henry     Holt     and     Company 

Publishers  <"-'°5)  New  York 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


KEC'D 

QCT07  m 

SEP  is  m 


A     000  407  633     7 


